Bids open for India’s bullet train tunnel

26 September 2022


National High-Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL) is inviting bids for the construction of a 21km tunnel, including India’s first undersea tunnel, for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project.

Approximately 16km of the tunnel, which will link the Mumbai underground station at Bandra Kurla Complex and Shilphata in Thane district of Maharashtra, will be built using three, 13.1m diameter TBMs, and the remaining 5km by NATM. The single tube structure, accommodating twin tracks, will be 25 to 65m below ground level and the deepest point will be 114m below the Parsik hill near Shilphata.

The 7km undersea tunnel at Thane Creek will be the first undersea tunnel in the country.

It is the third time NHSRCL has invited bids for Package C2. The first launch in 2019 failed to attract any interest. A second invitation was launched in November 2021 but cancelled three months later because of issues over land acquisition for TBM launch shafts and uncertainty over the site for Bandra Kurla Complex Station where a pop-up Covid hospital was built in 2020.

In July this year NHSRCL issued an invitation for tender for the design and construction of Bandra Kurla Complex, the only underground station on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor.

The 508km high-speed line will connect Mumbai with India’s several largest city to the north in Gujarat. The line will feature 12 stations and will accommodate India’s first bullet trains, which will travel at speeds up to 320km.

The Indian government has received a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency towards the cost of the high-speed rail project.

Bids close on January 19, 2023. For more information on the tender requirements, click here