Construction of 12 River Bridges Completed for Bullet Train Corridor in Gujarat

Ahmedabad: construction of 12 out of total 20 river bridges in Gujarat for 508-km long Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor has been completed, officials said on Sunday.

120-metre-long bridge on Kharera river in Navsari district is 12th such structure to be recently completed in Gujarat, National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) said.

bullet train project covers Gujarat (352 km) and Maharashtra (156 km), with a total of 12 stations planned at Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand/Nadiad, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati.

train is expected to sharply reduce travel time between Ahmedabad and Mumbai to around 3 hours from current 6 to 8 hours.

" bridge on Kharera river, Navsari district, has been completed on October 29, 2024 for bullet train project which marks completion of all nine river bridges between Vapi and Surat bullet train stations (in south Gujarat) of Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor," NHSRCL said in a statement.

Kharera is one of tributaries of Ambika river, which originates from hills in Vansda taluka in border area of Gujarat and Maharashtra.

river is located around 45 km from Vapi bullet train station and 6 km from Bilimora station, it said.

Apart from Kharera, bridges have also been constructed on Par, Purna, Mindhola, Ambika, Auranga, Kolak, Kaveri and Venganiya rivers between Vapi and Surat.

or bridges which have been completed are on rivers of Dhadhar (Vadodara district), Mohar and Vatrak (both in Kheda district), it said.

As on October 21, 2024, entire 1,389.5 hectare land to be used for project has been acquired, and all civil and depot tenders for project, and track tender for Gujarat portion have been awarded, statement said.

Work is under progress on all 12 stations. work of a 21-km tunnel with 7 km length passing through undersea has also started, NHSRCL said.

" undersea tunnel is at about 36 m below ground with a diameter of 12.1 m to accommodate both UP and DN (down) tracks of bullet train in one tunnel. Such a big diameter undersea tunnel is being constructed for first time in India," it said.

NHSRCL also said that 16 km out of total 21 km of tunnel is planned to be constructed using Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM), and remaining 5 km by New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM).

slurry type TBMs with cutter head diameter of 13.6 m are being procured keeping in mind ground conditions and reliability.

"Works on three shafts for lowering and retrieval of TBMs are nearing completion. Furr, 394 m long Additional Driven Intermediate Tunnel (ADIT) is already completed and tunnel boring through NATM taken up at three faces simultaneously to pace up work," it said.