NHSRL opens technical bid for Mumbai-Ahmedabad rail corridor

The government has invited tenders for the design and construction of 237 km long mainline for the high-speed rail corridor from Mumbai to Ahmedabad bullet train. Afcons Infrastructure Limited, Larsen & Toubro Limited and NCC have participated in the competitive bidding.

New Delhi: The National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) opened technical bids for the design and construction of 237 km long Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor, on Wednesday. This tender covers 47 per cent of total alignment of 508 km between Vapi and Vadodara in the state of Gujarat. It includes four stations- Vapi, Billimora, Surat and Bharuch, 24 rivers and 30 road crossings.

In a statement released by NHSRCL, it stated that the entire section of this project is in Gujarat, where more than 83 per cent of the land has already been acquired. A total of three bidders, including Afcons Infrastructure Limited, Larsen & Toubro Limited and NCC- Tata Project Limited, have participated in the competitive bidding.

This Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train Corridor is being built at a cost of Rs 1.08 lakh crore. However, the project had to deal with a heavy blow due to Covid-19 outbreak. NHSRCL claimed that this project of Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor alone will create more than 90,000 direct and indirect jobs in its construction.

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The project was expected to be completed by December 2023, however, officials remain pessimistic about meeting the deadline given the months lost due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

"Not just the employment market but production and manufacturing market are also expected to gain with the project. It is estimated that close to 75 lakh MT of cement, 21 lakh MT of steel and 1.4 lakh MT of structural steel will be used in the construction," stated NHSRCL.

In addition to this, the Central Government has also planned 7 more bullet train projects, including Delhi-Ahmedabad, Delhi-Amritsar, Delhi-Varanasi, Chennai-Mysore, Mumbai-Hyderabad, Varanasi-Howrah and Mumbai-Nagpur.