Almost every week, India’s much awaited Bullet Train project is achieving some critical milestones and now, another made in India steel bridge in Silvassa in Dadra & Nagar Haveli has been added to the list. This is the fourth steel bridge completed for the Bullet Train corridor out of the 28 planned.
It is 100 metre long and was launched on Sunday, the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) announced on Monday.
“This 1,464 MT steel bridge, 14.6 metre in height and 14.3 metre in width, has been fabricated at the workshop in Trichy, Tamil Nadu and was transported on trailers to the site for installation,” the statement added.
A temporary launching nose spanning 84 metre and weighing 600 MT was connected with the main bridge for launching, to avoid any intermediate support. Additional temporary members were also installed to strengthen the bridge during launching,” it added.
At least 27,500 high-strength friction grip bolts were utilised to connect the components of launching nose and about 55,250 Tor-Shear Type High Strength (TTHS) bolts with C5 system painting and elastomeric bearings were utilised for the main bridge.
“The steel bridge along with launching nose were assembled near the site at a height of 14.5 metre from the ground on temporary trestles and was pulled with an automatic mechanism of two semi-automatic jacks, each of capacity of 250 tons using mac-alloy bars,” the body building the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor (MAHSR) explained.
This is the fourth steel bridge for the project, with all of these launched in the last 12 months. Also, this is the first steel bridge outside Gujarat. The first three bridges were in Gujarat – across national highway 53 in Surat (in October 2023); next on Vadodara-Ahmedabad main railway line near Nadiad (April 2024); and over Delhi-Mumbai expressway in Vadodara (June 2024).
“The Bullet Train project is being executed meticulously, maintaining the utmost standards of safety and engineering excellence. Leveraging Japanese expertise, India is increasingly utilizing its own technical and material resources to build infrastructure under the “Make in India” initiative. The steel bridge for the Bullet Train Project is a major example of this effort,” the NHSRCL said.
Last week, News18 had reported that the project is underway at great pace with 10 river bridges completed in Gujarat. There will be 24 river bridges in Gujarat alone for the project.
The Project
The work on the project started in September 2017. Initially, it was expected that it would be completed by December 2023. However, the project is delayed and now one of the stretches could be started around 2026.
The total length of the project is 508 km covering 12 stations across three states – Maharashtra (156 km); Dadra and Nagar Haveli ( 4 km); and Gujarat (384 km).
The high-speed trains on the corridor will operate at 320 km/hour. As per the plans, there will be 35 trains per day from one direction, with a frequency of 20 minutes in peak hours and 30 minutes in non-peak hours.
It is a limited-stop project and the operational control centre for the corridor will be located in Sabarmati.
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