News Brief
Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train Project: Track Construction Work Progressing Swiftly In Gujarat
The high-speed rail will cover 508.17 km distance between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. (Wikipedia)
The Gujarat section of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train project has reached a significant milestone with the commencement of rail welding on the viaduct.
The track construction is progressing swiftly, with advanced flash butt welding (FBW) technology employed to assemble 25-meter rails procured from Japan.
The process involves preparing and aligning 25-metre-long rails to be joined into 200-metre-long panels using cutting-edge welding machines.
So far, 298 such panels, covering around 60 km, have been successfully welded.
According to the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), which is the executing agency for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, rail welding is a critical step in ensuring passenger comfort, track durability, and safety during high speed travel.
Key steps in bullet train rail welding process:
Before rail welding, the rail ends are grinded and surface preparation which ensures a pristine surface for the crucial joining of rails.
Each rail is checked to meet the dimensional requirements for welding
Once the rails are perfectly aligned, they are joined together using flash butt welding technology.
Weld is inspected by using magnetic particle and ultrasonic testing for detection of flaw and if any flaw is detected in the weld the same is replaced by new weld.
Alignment is checked by special rail tread measuring equipment (procured from Japan).
After going through the rigorous procedure, the 200 m long rail panels are spread by a special rail feeder car to lay, temporary track, at Standard Gauge, to facilitate movement of sophisticated high end machineries like slab laying car, CAM injection cars etc.
The NHSRCL said that Dedicated Track Construction Bases (TCBs) are being planned and constructed to facilitate track construction including handling of rails, track slabs, machineries and equipment on ground and at the viaduct
The DTCBs also serve as a base for engineers and other man-power working for track construction.
Four track construction bases, two in between Surat and Bilimora and two in between Vadodara and Anand in Gujarat have been made operational, at present, according to NHSRCL.
The entire process of track installation is mechanised with cutting edge machinery especially designed and manufactured, as per Japanese specifications, in India or directly purchased from Japan.
Four sets of track construction machineries have been arranged, so far, for the project.
The fleet of machines include rail feeder car, track slab laying car, related wagons and motor cars, CAM laying car and flash butt welding machines.
Further, RC Track Bed construction has commenced over multiple locations in Anand, Vadodara, Surat and Navsari district in Gujarat.
And, nearly 64 track km of RC track bed construction has been completed.
Track slabs are being separately casted in dedicated track slab manufacturing facilities set up in Kim (near Surat) and in Anand.
These factories are equipped with state-of-the-art technologies and infrastructure to produce precise slabs for track construction.
More than 23,000 slabs have been cast which are equivalent to 118 track km, the NHSRCL said.
