Ahmedabad: M/s BL Kashyap & Sons has commenced construction work of first High Speed Rail (Bullet Train) Terminal at Sabarmati, Gujarat.

National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) had last year awarded the Rs 332 crore project for the design and construction of the Sabarmati Terminal for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail to B L Kashyap & Sons Limited, one of the leading construction, infrastructure, and civil engineering companies in the country.

The BL Kashyap & Sons Limited emerged as the lowest bidder among the 15 other bidders with a quote of Rs 332 crores.

A total of 16 Indian infrastructure firms participated in the bid that was floated in August. Technical bids were opened on October 5. This is the first tender for construction a bullet train station on the high sped rail route.

The Sabarmati terminal hub will act as the originating point for those boarding the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed bullet train from Ahmedabad and as terminating point for those boarding the bullet train from the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai. The terminal station will be themed on Mahatma Gandhi’s famous Dandi March of 1930.

Sabarmati terminal building will be developed as a major multi-modal transport hub facilitating passengers to have seamless connectivity with the Indian railway network, the Ahmedabad metro, and the Ahmedabad BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) corridor.

Popularly known as the ‘bullet rain’, the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail corridor is being developed with 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.

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 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.

The National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) has already invited bids for tunnelling Works on Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project.

The scope of work include testing and commissioning for double line high-speed railway using tunnel boring machine (TBM) and new Austrian tunneling method (NATM) between Mumbai underground station at Bandra-Kurla Complex and Shilphata in Maharashtra as a part of the construction of Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail. The length of tunneling work will be over 20 km.

The National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) is planning to operationalise at least one section of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project by 5 August 2022.