7 hours to under 60 minutes: Chennai-Bengaluru bullet train inches closer

India’s third bullet train project, connecting Chennai and Bengaluru, has taken its first concrete step forward with the Centre floating tenders for pre-construction activity on the 306.2km corridor. The tender directs the contractor to work on an updated alignment of the project, which currently has eight stations, including three in Tamil Nadu at Chennai Central, Poonamalle and Parandur.

The promise driving the project is speed. Once operational, the bullet train is expected to run at 350kmph, cutting travel time between the two cities to under an hour. That is a dramatic shift from the roughly seven hours the journey currently takes by road, though the upcoming Chennai-Bengaluru Expressway is separately expected to bring that road time down to about three hours.

According to the terms of reference, the first station on the corridor will come up on the western side of Chennai Suburban Railway Station, linked to Chennai Central and its metro station through 100-metre and 50-metre connections. From there, the corridor runs elevated through Perambur, Kolathur, ICF, Madhavaram, Padi, the Chennai Bypass, Chennai-Thiruvallur Highway, Annanur, Poonamalle and Arakkonam, before joining the Chennai-Bengaluru Expressway alignment through Chittoor, Kolar, Kodihalli and White Field, ending at Baiyappanahalli in Bengaluru.

The route also includes three tunnels. A 1.7km tunnel is planned near Chennai Central, an 11.8km tunnel will run through the Kaundinya wildlife sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh’s mountain ranges, and a 14.7km tunnel will carry the line under Bengaluru’s urban stretch. Of the full 306km corridor, about 28km will run underground.

The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited had originally proposed Parandur as a full station in its detailed project report, but the latest tender marks it only as a ‘future station’, with the rest of the eight stations classified as ‘stop stations’. Officials said a station will still be planned for those in Kancheepuram, Arakkonam and Sriperambudur, depending on airport connectivity, regardless of whether the Parandur station eventually comes up.

The project is expected to be completed by 2035, with a project cost currently estimated at close to ₹18,000 crore — a figure that will be finalised once the contractor submits its revised alignment study. The tender also requires the Indian Railways to coordinate with the National Highways Authority of India on connectivity with the Chennai-Bengaluru Expressway (NE-7). This is the third bullet train corridor under construction in the country, alongside the Mumbai-Ahmedabad and Delhi-Varanasi high-speed rail projects.

Image credit: Ministry of Railways / GODL-India.