Surat, Oct. 12 -- Along the approach to the under-construction bullet train station in Surat, a small ecosystem of businesses is already beginning to take shape. Tea stalls, food outlets, transport operators and small traders are positioning themselves around what they expect will become a new commercial node once India's first high-speed railway begins carrying passengers.

For some of them, the attraction is less about travelling on the train than about what its arrival could mean for the city. Many may never buy a bullet train ticket, but they take pride in seeing a train that has so far been associated with Japan, China and Europe take shape in their own city.

That anticipation is now being matched by a furious pace of construction o...