Railway Minister Piyush Goyal met Hiroto Izumi, Special Advisor to Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in New Delhi in July and discussed the progress on the 508 km Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail (HSR) project, railway officials said.

The Railway Minister apprised the Japanase PM’s advisor about the progress in the project. The National High-Speed Rail Corp Ltd (NHSRCL), carrying out the project (commonly known as bullet train project) is hopeful of acquiring a major chunk of land required by the end of this year. The NHSRCL had acquired 39 per cent of the 1,380 hectares of land till last month.

The bullet trains are expected to run at 320 km per hour, covering the 508-km stretch in about two hours. Trains plying on the route take over seven hours and planes about an hour. Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Premier Shinzo Abe of Japan on September 14, 2017 laid the foundation stone for the Rs 1.08 lakh crore ($17 billion) HSR project.