india

Updated: Aug 02, 2019 15:34 IST

The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), which is executing the ambitious bullet train project, has issued the third tender related to the project.

The corporation has invited bids for design and construction of civil and building works for Double Line High Speed Railway involving viaduct and bridges, crossing bridges, maintenance depot and station between Vadodara and Ahmedabad.

The 90km section will have one elevated station at Anand/Nadiad. The bidders are given four months to submit the bid and another 1,370 days to complete the project.

“More than 66% of the land required for the above-mentioned tender has been acquired. This is the third tender floated by NHSRCL this year,” a spokesperson for NHSRCL Sushma Gaur said.

“With this, NHSRCL has invited bids (all three tenders included) for the construction of about 69% (348km) of total alignment of 508km, including 21km of an underground tunnel, 5 (five) elevated stations and one depot at Surat,” Gaur said.

Earlier this year, bids were invited for the viaduct between Zaroli village at Maharashtra- Gujarat Border and Vadodara in Gujarat, which has a length of 237.10km ie 47% of total alignment of 508km, elevated except one mountain tunnel of about 280m. Another tender was for the underground tunnel of about 21km, including 7km of an undersea tunnel in Maharashtra.

The introduction of the country’s first bullet train, expected to be operational in 2022, will mark India’s shift to an era of high-speed trains capable of hitting speeds of up to 350 kilometres per hour.

The Narendra Modi government has set an ambitious deadline of completing the project by August 15, 2022, when India marks 75 years of Independence. NHSRCL, however, expects to open a section of the network by then and complete it by December 2023.

About 35% of the land required for the project has been acquired. Of the 508.17km-long corridor, 155.76km will be in Maharashtra, 348.04 km in Gujarat and 4.3km in Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

The foundation stone for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in 2017.