The National High Speed Rail Corporation of India (NHSRCL) announced on Friday that it has invited bids for a 21-kilometer-long tunnel in Maharashtra, including India’s first 7-kilometer-long undersea tunnel, for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor.
It stated that the bid is for tunnelling work using the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) and the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM). The tunnel would run between the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) underground station and Shilphata in Maharashtra.
“The 7-km (approx.) undersea tunnel at Thane Creek would be the first under sea tunnel to come up in the country. The tunnel would be a single tube tunnel to accommodate twin track for both-up and down track,” NHSRCL said, adding that 39 equipment rooms at 37 locations would also be constructed adjoining tunnel location as part of the package.
This tunnel would be about 25 to 65 metre deep from the ground level and the deepest construction point would be 114 metre below the Parsik hill near Shilphata.
In July of this year, the NHSRCL invited bids for the design and construction of an underground station in Mumbai’s BKC. The BKC rail station would be the rail corridor project’s only underground station.