Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train work picking up speed: A look at its status

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train project is picking up speed. The 508.17-kilometre-long network will pass through 12 stations between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The last status report was shared in August by the National High-Speed Rail Corporation Ltd which is executing the project, and recently a new tender has been floated for the completion of the last leg of the project.

The NHSRC has floated tenders for the final 135km stretch of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project. This includes viaduct, mountain tunnels and three stations and with this, bids for the entire 508km corridor will be up for submission.

The 135km stretch outside Mumbai falls between Shilphata and Zaroli on the Maharashtra-Gujarat border. There are three stations to be built in that stretch, which are Thane, Virar and Boisar.

The tenders include construction of 36 bridges (11 are on rivers), and six mountain tunnels. The last date for submission of bids has been set as March 14, 2023, and the bidders will be finalised on March 15, 2023.

Earlier the bids for the construction of the BKC underground station were invited on July 22 and the technical bids were opened on November 4 which are now being finalised.

The four bidders running for the tenders are Larsen & Toubro, J Kumar Infraprojects Ltd, Afcons Infrastructure Ltd, and MEIL-HCC Joint Venture.

For the construction of a separate 21km underground tunnel, including 7km of undersea tunnel between BKC station and Shilphata, the bids were invited on September 23. These and are scheduled to be opened on January 20, 2023.

While 92 percent of the 508km bullet train corridor will be elevated, 6 percent will be via tunnels and the rest will be at ground level.

The Railway Board announced that the civil work contracts will be awarded only after 90 percent of the land acquisition was completed by the NHSRCL.

However, the recent tender was floated after nearly 96 percent of the land has been acquired while 74 percent of the land is NHSRC’s possession.

The total cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 1.08 lakh crore according to a report in PTI. As per the shareholding pattern, the central government is to pay Rs 10,000 crore to the NHSRCL, while the Gujarat and Maharashtra are to pay Rs 5,000 crore each. The rest of the amount is raised from Japan through a loan at 0.1 percent interest.