Mumbai: Ground work on Bullet train finally got going

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Ground work on the ambitious High-Speed Rail, popular as the Bullet train project, has finally got going in Mumbai. The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) has called for field survey the basic work that will kick off the project.

India's first bullet train, being built with the joint partnership of India and Japan by the National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), will traverse the 508-km long distance between Ahmedabad and Mumbai in 2 hours and 57 minutes covering 12 stations, including the originating and final station. It starts from BKC in Mumbai with an underground station, has an undersea tunnel till Thane and then goes elevated. The frequency of train service at peak hours will be 20 minutes.

Senior officials said in Mumbai, the construction of Bullet Train station that is expected to be underground the International Finance Centre at BKC coming up at the site of the present MMRDA Grounds is expected to generate 17.6 lakh cubic metres of muck and soil that would be excavated over a period of one year.

"We are in the process of identifying multiple and ideal locations where how such much muck would be transported and disposed of safely in an environment-friendly manner. In addition to this, the work will also involve studying the ongoing Mumbai Metro projects in the vicinity and how its work would affect the Bullet train construction process," he added.

Work on Underground Mumbai Metro Line 3 and Line 2B is already underway at BKC with a joint and integrated station (underground and elevated) coming up near Income Tax Office junction. The Bullet Train station, a few metres away is expected to connect to this station directly with an underground walkway. Work on the Metros and the BKC arm of the Santacruz Chembur Link Road (SCLR) is ongoing near the alignment and we would be studying its impact on the construction.

"In addition to the Metros, there are other parameters that we would see like the traffic diversions required, a survey and age of the adjoining buildings and other basic parameters along with permission requirements etc," he added.

"It has been one year since the foundation stone of the project was jointly laid by the Prime Ministers of India and Japan on September 14, 2017 and work has been proceeding satisfactorily. We will be able to sort out land acquisition issues by December 2018 after which the project will gather further speed." NHSRCL spokesperson Dhananjay Kumar said.

Actual construction work is expected to begin in 2019 and full operations by around 2023. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set deadline of August 15, 2022 for flagging off the first bullet train to coincide with 75 years of Independence, by which time a small section from Surat to Billimora in Gujarat will be kept ready.

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