The work on the bullet train has picked up pace in Maharashtra, bolstered by the Bombay High Court calling it a project of “national importance and in public interest”.
On Thursday, News18 visited the Bandra Kurla Complex site where the only underground station of the project will come up. Speaking to News18, National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) Chief Project Manager UP Singh said the platform is planned at a depth of about 24 meters from the ground level.
“There will be three floors, including platform, concourse and service floor. The station will have two entry/exit points with one of these facilitating the access to nearby metro station of metro line 2B and other towards the MTNL building,” Singh said.
Situated in the heart of the city’s prominent upscale commercial hub, the station will aid people coming to Mumbai daily for work from Thane or Virar.
“You can reach here in 10 minutes from Thane and about 30 minutes from Virar. With the help of the metro line, commuters can get to their destination in the next 15-20 minutes,” he said, adding that people can save a lot of time with this project.
For those not taking the metro, integration with other modes of transportation like buses, autos and taxis is also planned.
Explaining the details of the station, Singh went on to say that it has been planned in a way that ample space is available for passenger movement and amenities at the concourse and platform level.
“Dedicated skylight provisions have been made for natural lighting. The amenities planned for passengers at stations include security, ticketing, waiting areas, business-class lounge, nursery, rest rooms, smoking rooms, information kiosks and incidental retail, public information and announcement system and CCTV surveillance.”
Under the project, there will be four stations in Maharashtra — Mumbai (BKC), Thane, Virar and Boisar — and eight in Gujarat — Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand/Nadiad, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati.
Further, overall 98.88 per cent land has been acquired in the project — 98.91 per cent in Gujarat and 98.79 per cent in Maharashtra. In Maharashtra, 430.45 hectares were needed and of this, 425.24 hectare were acquired. In Mumbai suburban, entire land has been acquired.
The land for the BKC station has been acquired from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). After the underground work is completed, the ground level will be given back to the MMRDA, Singh added. In Mumbai, the project is 156 kilometres long and divided into three civil packages.
India’s first under-sea tunnel
In the second package, there will be a tunnel between the underground station at Bandra-Kurla Complex and Shilphata in Maharashtra. The tunnelling works for 21 kilometres also include a seven-km undersea tunnel, which will be India’s first. The tunnelling will be done using Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) and New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM), Singh explained.
On Thursday, technical bids for this package were opened. Two bidders — Afcons Infrastructure Limited and Larsen & Toubro Limited — have submitted their bids.
“The seven-km undersea tunnel at Thane Creek will be the first undersea tunnel to come up in the country. It will be a single tube tunnel to accommodate twin tracks for both-up and down. Apart from this, 39 equipment rooms at 37 locations will also be constructed adjoining the tunnel location as part of the package,” Singh told News18.
To construct this tunnel, he said, TBMs with a cutter head of 13.1 metre diameter will be used. “Usually 5-6 meter diameter cutter heads are used for urban tunnels used in MRTS – Metro system,” he said.
To speed up the work on the intertidal zone, he also explained that tunnelling will be done from both sides. Overall, three TBMs will be used and will be responsible for about 16 km of the tunnel portion and the remaining five km will be through New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM).
“This tunnel will be about 25-65 metres deep from the ground level and the deepest construction point will be 114m below the Parsik hill near Shilphata. Three shafts at BKC, Vikhroli, and Sawli at approximate depths of 36, 56 and 39 metre depths respectively will facilitate the construction,” he added.
The total length of the corridor is 508 km – 156 km in Maharashtra, four km in Dadra Nagar Haveli and 384 km in Gujarat. The maximum operational speed will be 320 kmph and the total time taken for the trip will be 2.58 hours. There will be three depots, one in Maharashtra in Thane and other two in Gujarat in Surat and Sabarmati. The Operational Control Centre will be at Sabarmati.
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