India, May 18 -- A framed image at Gate 4 of the Ministry of Railways building in New Delhi on Monday showed a sleek, aerodynamic train - grey body, orange and gold livery, a rounded nose reminiscent of Japan's Shinkansen - gliding along an elevated viaduct through a green landscape.

It appeared the government had put a face to its most ambitious infrastructure project. But a picture - a representational image or rendering, in this case - at a ministry gate is not actually a bullet train.

So where does the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) corridor actually stand, nearly nine years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid its foundation stone?

The most authoritative recent snapshot comes from Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishn...