Bullet train: National High Speed Rail opens tender

NHSRCL opens Technical bids for 28 Steel bridges and 88 km of viaduct between Vadodara and Ahmedabad for MAHSR corridor

National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) opens technical bids for two packages today for Mumbai Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) Corridor.

Tender invited for Two Packages

1. Procurement and Fabrication of 28 steel bridges for crossing over railway lines, rivers, highways, road crossings and other structures (P-4)
2. Design and Construction of 88 km (Approx) of viaduct between Vadodara and Ahmedabad in Gujarat including construction of elevated HSR station at Anand/Nadiad.(C-6), 5 Bridges and 25 crossings.

8 Bidders participated for Procurement and Fabrication of 28 steel bridges

Out of 8 bidders, 7 are Indian companies and 1 is a consortium between Indian and Japanese company.

Following 7 Indian Companies participated in bid…

1. Tata Projects Ltd.
2. Afcons Infrastructure Ltd.
3. Braithwaite & Co. Ltd.Consortium
4. Bridge & Roof Co. (India) Ltd.
5. NCC Ltd.
6. JMC Projects(India) Ltd. &RaheeInfratech Ltd.
7. ISGEC Heavy Engineering Ltd. – M & B Engineering Ltd. Consortium

A consortium between Indian and Japanese company participated in bid…

8. Larsen & Toubro – IHI Infrastructure Systems Consortium

It is estimated that about 70,000 MT of Steel will be used for the fabrication of 28 steel bridges. NHSRCL has already sensitized the steel industries to cater such a huge demand for the India’s first High Speed Rail corridor.

3 Bidders participated for Design and Construction of 88 Kms viaduct and Anand/Nadiad station

For this package, all 3 were indian companies.

1. Afcons Infrastructure Limited – IRCON International Limited – JMC Projects India Ltd- Consortium
2. NCC Limited – Tata Project Ltd.- J. Kumar Infra Projects Ltd. – HSR Consortium
3. Larsen & Toubro Ltd.

With the opening of these bids, the technical bids covering 64% (325 km out of 508 km) of the total MAHSR alignment including five (5) HSR stations (Vapi, Billimora, Surat, Bharuch and Anand/Nadiad) out of 12 stations and one Train depot at Surat are under consideration.

Do You Know?

The unique front profile of E5 series of Shinkansen Train is inspired by a bird called #DuckBill. It has been done to combat the side effects of ‘piston effect’ which is caused by trains pushing air through tunnels as they enter & exit them.

Earlier this week, NHSRCL has opened the technical bids for 237 km of viaduct between Vapi and Vadodara in Gujarat including 4 elevated HSR stations and one Train depot at Surat where all the three bidders comprising seven (7) leading Indian infrastructure companies had participated.

The Indian Steel and Cement industries and their allied supply chains will get a big boost from these tenders.

Mumbai–Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor (MAHSR)

The first Bullet Train between Mumbai to Ahmedabad to be run in India, with the technical and financial assistance of Government of Japan. With total 12 stations in the States of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the corridor will have a length of 508.17 Km.

Where high speed rail will cover 155.76 kms in the state of Maharashtra (7.04 Kms in Mumbai sub-urban, 39.66 kms in Thane district & 109.06 kms in Palghar district), 4.3 kms in union territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and 348.04 kms in the state of Gujarat.

High speed rail will cover total 12 stations

First 4 stations are in Maharashtra and remaining 8 stations will be in Gujarat.

• Mumbai
• Thane
• Virar
• Boisar
• Vapi
• Bilimora
• Surat
• Bharuch
• Vadodara
• Anand
• Ahmedabad, and
• Sabarmati.

A Fast Bullet Train service limited stop (in Surat & Vadodara) service will cover complete distance in 1 hr. and 58 mins and will stop at Surat and Vadodara stations only.

A Slow Bullet Train service will stop at all 12 stations and will take 2 hr. 57 min to cover the complete distance from Mumbai to Ahmedabad.

High speed rail will be operating at a speed of 320 Km/hr at an elevated (10 to 15 m) track above the ground on a viaduct all along except 26 kms in Mumbai, which will be underground.

All stations will be elevated except Bandra Kurla Complex station (Mumbai), which will be underground.

Operational Plan of MAHSR Bullet Train

• Operational control centre will be at Sabarmati.
• Initially, trains will have total 10 coaches with a seating capacity of 750 passengers, which will be further increased to 16 coaches and seating capacity of 1250 passengers.
• There will be 35 trains per day/one direction.
• 1 train every 20 mins in peak hours, and
• 1 train every 30 mins in non-peak hours.
• Train frequency will be further increased one train every 8 mins in future.
• Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed rail will be equipped to handle 17,900 passengers one way daily which will be increased up to 92,900 passengers in future.

National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL)

National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), a separate Special Purpose Vehicle has been set up to implement the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project.

High speed rail training center in Vadodara

High Speed Rail Training Institute, Vadodara is being set up alongside National academy of Indian Railways (NAIR), Vadodara. This training institute will be the training ground for all NHSRCL staff.

It is aimed that High-Speed Rail Training Institute, Vadodara will serve as a back bone for future development of other High-Speed Corridors in India.

The construction of the High Speed Rail Training Institute at Vadodara has commenced as also pre-construction activities like land acquisition, geo-technical investigation, etc. have been taken on hand.

Training institute is expected to start working in Dec 2020. Officers/staff trained in Japan along with Japanese experts will impart training at this institute.

High Speed Rail Corridors in Indian Railways

The Railways is continuously making efforts for improving speed of both passenger and freight trains. Improvement in average speed of trains is a continuous exercise for Railways.

A Memorandum of Cooperation has been signed with Government of Japan for Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) project which includes transfer of technology and Make in India.

At present, Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) corridor is the only HSR Project which is sanctioned and the same is under execution with the technical & financial cooperation from Government of Japan. This project is targeted for completion by the year 2023.

Further, Ministry of Railways has decided to undertake Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the following six High Speed Rail (HSR) corridors:

(i) Delhi – Noida – Agra – Kanpur – Lucknow- Varanasi (865 kms)

(ii) Delhi – Jaipur – Udaipur – Ahmedabad (886 kms)

(iii) Mumbai – Nasik – Nagpur (753 kms)

(iv) Mumbai – Pune – Hyderabad (711 kms)

(v) Chennai – Bangalore – Mysore (435 kms)

(vi) Delhi – Chandigarh – Ludhiana – Jalandhar – Amritsar (459 kms)

The work of undertaking DPR has been entrusted to National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd. (NHSRCL).

• Source : PIB, NHSRCL

Read More about…

• Indian Railway Institute of Civil Engineering, Pune