'Made In India' Giant Equipment Launched To Build Mumbai - Ahmedabad Bullet Train Corridor

Union Minister for Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw, on Thursday (9 September) flagged off indigenously designed and manufactured 'Full Span Launching Equipment-Straddle Carrier and Girder Transporter' to expedite the construction of the viaduct for Mumbai - Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR) corridor.

Building With 'Made In India' Equipment

The full span launching equipment of 1,100MT capacity is indigenously designed and manufactured by M/s Larsen &Toubro at Kanchipuram, Chennai.

M/s L&T has partnered with 55 Micro-Small Medium Enterprises (MSME) to build it. India is now coming in the select group of countries like Italy, Norway, Korea, and China to design and manufacture such equipment.

This development will expedite the high-speed railway construction, as it is a proven technology in metro and similar projects.

For constructing 508 km long viaduct superstructures of Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Project (MAHSR), State-of-the-Art construction methodologies like Full Span Launching Methodology (FSLM) will be adopted.

This technology will expedite the launching of girders as the precast girders of full span length will be erected as a single piece for a double-track viaduct. FSLM has been used the world over as it is faster than the segment by segment launching method, usually adopted for constructing viaducts for metro systems.

A total of 20 such launching equipment will be required to construct 325 km of viaduct superstructures between Vapi and Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat.

Bullet Train Project: An Economy Booster

Work has already begun on 325 km (in Gujarat) out of the 508 km corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

More than 97 per cent of land has been acquired for the project in Gujarat and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and 30 per cent land in Maharashtra.

This project will improve skills in various rail construction technologies. Japanese counterparts will provide training to National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited employees and also to contractors.

More than 6,000 workers are already working at various construction sites for the project, thus creating employment opportunities for the local youth.

The MAHSR project is expected to create more than 90,000 jobs, including 51,000 technicians, besides skilled and unskilled workers.

This project will boost the area's overall economy by deploying 1,000s of trucks, dumpers, excavators, batching plants, tunnelling equipment, etc.

It is estimated that the MAHSR project utilises 7.5 million tons of cement, 2.1 million tons of steel and 70,000 tonnes of structural steel.