After Modi’s Shinkansen bullet train ride, Japan minister reaches Gujarat to inspect HSR stretch

Just over a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled on the Shinkansen bullet train with Japan PM Shigeru Ishiba, the Japanese Minister arrived in Surat on Friday.

Travelling with H.E. @Hiro_NAKANO_ aboard Vande Bharat Express from Surat to Mumbai. 🇮🇳🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/Ha5XOvfYnN

— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) October 3, 2025

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Nakano arrived at Surat airport on Friday and was accorded a traditional Garba welcome. The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) said on Frideachesay that Nakano, accompanied by Vaishnaw, visited the construction site at Surat: “The two Ministers reviewed key components of the project, including the track slab laying car and the track slab adjustment facility and also expressed satisfaction with the quality standards being followed and commended the rapid pace of construction”.

Later, Vaishnaw and Nakano boarded the Vande Bharat from Surat to Mumbai. Nakano and Vaishnaw also travelled in the locomotive pilot’s cabin for a stretch of the route, where Nakano took “keen interest” in understanding the controls of the high speed chair car train in India. The NHSRCL said, “The visit reflects strong collaboration between India and Japan in implementing India’s first High-Speed Rail corridor.”

The first bullet train to run in India between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will have Japan’s E10 high-speed trains, which will be introduced in India and Japan simultaneously. The current Japanese Shinkansen system runs with E5 trains. The entire stretch of the 508-km corridor is being developed with Japanese Shinkansen technology.

Out of the 508 km, 323 km viaduct and 399 km pier work has been completed. The route has also seen completion of 17 river bridges, which includes five pre-stressed concrete and nine steel bridges. The NHSRCL has also installed more than 4 lakh noise barriers along 210 km of stretch of the completed track bed. The excavation work on seven mountain tunnels in Palghar district is in progress in Maharashtra while five kilometres of NATM tunnel out of 21 km of tunnel between Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) and Shilphata in Maharashtra has been excavated. The construction of Rolling Stock depots at Surat and Ahmedabad are also in progress. The superstructure work on all stations in Gujarat is at an advanced stage. Work has started on all three elevated stations and base slab casting at Mumbai underground station in Maharashtra is in progress.