The National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL) executing the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) has awarded the last civil package for the 135-kilometre stretch between Shilphata in Thane district and Zaroli village on the Maharashtra-Gujarat Border.
The contract has been awarded to Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which is said to have placed the lowest bid at Rs 15,697 crore.
Technically referred to as C3, the alignment of the package includes 124 km of viaduct and bridges, and seven tunnels of which six are mountain tunnels. Additionally the scope of work includes construction of three elevated stations, namely, Thane, Virar and Boisar.
It will also include bridges on Ulhas River, Vaitarna and Jagani, with the 2.28 km bridge over Vaitarana being the longest bridge of the MAHSR Project.
“NHSRCL awards the last civil package (C3) having 135 km of Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR (high speed rail) alignment including seven tunnels and longest bridge of two km over Vaitarna river in the state of Maharashtra,” the body said in a press release.
With this, all three civil packages of Maharashtra portion — construction of Mumbai (BKC) HSR station (C1), 21 km of tunnel including 7 km undersea tunnel (C2) and 135 km of alignment (C3) — of MAHSR corridor have been awarded, it added.
11 Civil Packages
With the award of C3 package, all the 11 civil packages of the 508-km-long Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train project are now awarded.
The eleven civil packages between them have 465-km-long viaducts, 12 high speed rail stations, three rolling stock depots, 28 steel bridges comprising 10 km of viaduct, 24 river bridges, nine tunnels, including a 7-km-long India’s first undersea tunnel.
The first civil contract for the construction of 237 km viaducts including 4 HSR stations (Vapi, Bilimora, Surat and Bharuch) and Surat rolling stock depot in Gujarat was awarded on 28 October 2020, which was also the largest civil contract awarded in India.
The last civil contract of 135 km viaduct with 3 HSR stations (Thane, Virar and Boisar) in Maharashtra was awarded on 19 July 2023.
The Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet train project has been divided into 28 contract packages, out of which 11 are civil packages, which were awarded in a span of 33 months.
This mega infrastructure project is expected to consume 1.6 crore cubic metres of cement and 17 lakh MT of steel and act as a catalyst to give the cement and steel industries a boost, NHSRCL added.
Other Major Contracts
Apart from civil work, the tenders for track works for the complete MAHSR section in Gujarat — 352 km out of total 508 km — have also been awarded.
Earlier in June 2023, the NHSRCL floated rolling stock tender for supply of 24 bullet trains worth Rs 11,000 crore for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed corridor.
According to the JICA loan conditions, only Japanese manufacturers such as Kawasaki and Hitachi can participate in the bid. The bids can be submitted by October-end this year.
Based on Japan’s E5 Shinkansen technology, the bullet train will have 10 coaches only and the first train is expected to arrive before 2027 so that it can be operationalised between Vapi and Sabarmati in Gujarat in 2027.