Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Japan visit, railways is stepping up efforts to concretise the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail corridor project amid expectation that a way forward is likely to be materialised during the trip. The bullet train is expected to run at a speed of 300 km per hour on the 534-km-long Mumbai-Ahmedabad route.

India and Japan are cooperating on Western Dedicated Freight Corridor and the proposed high speed rail corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, Railway Board Chairman Arunendra Kumar said in New Delhi on Thursday.

Asked about the possibility of any agreement on Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed corridor to be signed between India and Japan during PM's visit from August 30, he, however, declined to comment saying, "I cannot say about it." Currently JICA and French railway are involved in the feasibility study of the Rs 62,000 crore Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project.

On the progress of the bullet train project, Kumar said, "JICA has already submitted the preliminary report last month and the second report with more details is expected anytime now. Then the third and final report will be submitted by June 15."

While French report will mainly focus on business development model of the project, JICA study will cover the entire gamut including alignment, scheduling, tariff, technology, traffic, funding pattern, environment and social impact, passenger profile, number of station among others.

JICA's first report was discussed in detail at the Board and now we are awaiting the next report, CRB said. Rail Budget has allocated Rs 100 crore for the preparatory work for the bullet train project.The allocated fund will be utilised for skill development in high speed train and studies on the proposed diamond quadrilateral project, he said.