NHSRCL floats tenders for ₹7,000-cr undersea tunnel

The National High-Speed Rail (NHSRCL) has floated a tender to build a 21-km undersea rail tunnel for the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project. The tunnel will stretch from Bandra Kurla Complex to Kalyan Shilphata in Maharashtra where it would include a 1.8km section on the sea bed and 7km under the Thane creek. The remaining section will be built under mangroves on the two sides of the creek. Other works include testing and commissioning a double-line high-speed railway using a TBM and the Austrian tunneling method for the project, which is expected to be completed within three and a half years.The Bidding process will be open till August 22 and NHSRCL will also conduct a pre-bid meeting. A technical bid will be opened on 23 August in the presence of the bidders/representatives. A geotechnical investigation to construct the undersea tunnel are was completed last year by a joint team comprising engineers from NHSRCL, RITES and Japan‘s Kawasaki Geological Engineering, NHSRCL sources said that the project has received environmental clearances from most of the relevant authorities. The 508 km-long Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project is scheduled to become operational in 2022.