With India’s first bullet train on track for 2026 launch, a steel bridge of 100m length, a first of its kind, was launched over the main line of the Vadodara-Ahmedabad route near Nadiad, as per a release by the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL).
Being a technically equipped project, the bridge is constructed under the ‘Make in India’ initiative with indigenous technicalities and materials. Moreover, it is being established with Japanese knowledge prowess.
Fabricated at a workshop in Bhuj, almost 310 km away from the location of the bridge launching site, this 1,486 MT (metric tonnes) of steel structure was assembled at a height of 15.5m from the ground on temporary trestles.
The steel bridge was pulled with the automatic mechanism of two jacks, each of 180 MT capacity, using high-tension strands.
The making of steel bridges underwent technically equipped operations of cutting, drilling, welding, and painting as per the design by Japanese engineering support.
Project in a nutshell
This project, being built with an investment of ₹1.08 lakh cr, aims to cut the travel time on the 508 km route between Mumbai and Ahmedabad to a mere 2 hours.
The Bullet train is expected to touch a maximum speed of 320 kmph.
As many as 24 river bridges, 28 steel bridges, and seven mountain tunnels are being erected for the Bullet train route.
The corridor will also have a 7 km undersea tunnel.
The work on the bullet train project started in 2017, and is on target for completion in 2026, the union railway minister was quoted by agencies as saying.
This is the second out of the 28 steel bridges completed for the corridor. The first steel bridge was launched across National Highway 53, Surat in Gujarat.