India's High-Speed Rail Ambitions: The Role of Japan's Shinkansen Technology, ETInfra
E5 Shinkansen in India for trial runs
What the trials will test
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E10 Shinkansen
What's next for India and Japan
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ETInfra
In the 1990s, a Japanese engineer stared at a kingfisher and reimagined the future of travel.Eiji Nakatsu, an avid birdwatcher and chief engineer at JR West, was wrestling with a thorny design flaw: how to make high-speed trains quieter as they exited tunnels. The answer was in the bird's beak. Sleek and tapered, the kingfisher's bill pierced water with barely a splash—Nakatsu mimicked its shape for the nose of Japan's bullet trains, ushering in a new era of biomimetic engineering.Three decades later, that same spirit lives on in the ALFA-X , or Advanced Labs for Frontline Activity in rail eXperimentation—Japan's boldest prototype in high-speed rail. Built to achieve speeds of up to 400 km/h, ALFA-X goes beyond aerodynamics and noise mitigation. But the next leg of ALFA-X's journey won't run on familiar tracks. It intends to run through India.India is set to receive two E5 trains in early September 2026, according to BusinessLine, which will be deployed for trial runs along the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed corridor.The E5 Shinkansen was named Hayabusa, which translates to "peregrine falcon" in Japanese—a bird known for its speed and agility. With the ability to run at a top speed of 320 km/h, the E5 was rolled out in 2011 in Tohoku and 2016 in Hokkaido, Japan.Hitachi Rail and Kawasaki Heavy Industries manufacture the E5, equipping it with an aerodynamic shape and low-noise pantographs—a pantograph is a specially engineered overhead current collector designed to minimise the aerodynamic noise generated when high-speed trains operate at speeds above 300 km/h.By running on the Mumbai–Ahmedabad corridor during trials (likely) in 2026, the E5 fleet will gather operational data on pantograph performance in dusty environments, braking systems, ventilation efficiency, and seismic feedback from tunnels and viaduct segments—all of which will be useful to Japanese engineers as they refine the E10 or ALFA-X.The E10 trains are scheduled for a simultaneous rollout for passengers in 2030 in both India and Japan. 'In the spirit of strategic partnership between Japan and India, the Japanese government has agreed to introduce E10 Shinkansen trains in the Mumbai–Ahmedabad bullet train project,' said the Indian Railways in a recent statement. According to sources known to Hindustan Times, a 508-km long corridor is being developed with Shinkansen tech.The E10 Shinkansen includes L-shaped vehicle guides for earthquake resilience, SiC-based inverters, and blower-less induction motors that cut down on energy loss. Its 'train desk' includes USB ports and power outlets, and it offers improved seating layouts and accessibility—such as wheelchair spaces with unobstructed window views.As of July 2025, 310 km of viaducts have been completed, 15 river bridges built, and five of twelve stations finished. The 21-km undersea tunnel between BKC and Thane has achieved its first breakthrough, and the BKC station—32.5 meters underground—is being designed to support a 95-meter tower above.As per Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese daily, Prime Minister Modi is expected to visit Japan in August, with a scheduled tour of the Miyagi Prefecture plant where the E10 prototype is being developed.India's Shinkansen journey may have started with gifted trains, but it's shaping into something more than a transfer of hardware. Through climate trials, corridor construction, and development of E10, India isn't just participating in Japan's bullet train legacy—it's helping to future-proof it.
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