DELHI (Metro Rail News): National High-Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL) and construction company Larsen & Toubro (L&T) signed a Rs 2,460.88 crore agreement to design and develop an 8-kilometre viaduct route including high-speed rail (HSR) station in Vadodara, Gujarat For the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR).
NHSRCL has awarded 100% civil contracts for building MAHSR alignments in Gujarat, comprising eight HSR stations and two rolling stock depots in Sabarmati and Surat.
According to NHSRCL spokesperson ‘Sushma Guar,’ The Vadodara HSR station is proposed over the existing platform seven at the Indian Railways’ Vadodara station to ensure a seamless connection with the railways. Passengers would be able to travel more conveniently between HSR and Indian Railways stations as a result of the integration.
The Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor, which is now under development and will connect India’s financial metropolis of Mumbai with Gujarat’s commercial hub of Ahmedabad, is the country’s first bullet train project, 348 kilometres of the entire project length are in Gujarat, 4 kilometres are in the union territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli, and the remaining 156 kilometres are in Maharashtra. Of the expected Rs 110,000 crore budget, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is funding Rs 88,000 crore.
The project, which was launched in September 2017 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, was supposed to be completed by 2023. The deadline has been extended to 2028 due to difficulties in land acquisition in Maharashtra and the statewide lockdown was declared in March 2021 to contain the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As of now, Gujarat has completed 98.63 per cent of land acquisitions, Dadra & Nagar Haveli has completed 100 per cent, and Maharashtra has completed 60.2 per cent. The first bullet train will be tested on a 50-kilometre stretch between Surat and Bilimora in 2026, according to the country’s railway ministry.
