A breakthrough was achieved for a 4.88 km-long passageway betwixt Shilphata and Ghansoli for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad slug bid task connected Saturday (September 20, 2025) greeting successful the beingness of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Calling it a “landmark achievement”, Mr. Vaishnaw, who initiated the breakthrough of the tunnel, said that the archetypal signifier of the high-speed corridor connected the Surat-Bilimora conception volition commencement successful December 2027.
Talking to reporters successful Ghansoli adjacent Mumbai, the Minister said that the slug bid volition beryllium the "transport for the mediate class", and the fares volition beryllium "reasonable".
He said that the Google Maps app shows the travel clip betwixt Mumbai and Ahmedabad arsenic 9 hours, but radical volition beryllium capable to screen the region successful 2 hours and 7 minutes connected the slug train.
The archetypal signifier of the slug bid task volition beryllium archetypal launched connected the Surat-Bilimora conception successful 2027, covering Thane successful 2028 and the Bandra Kurla Complex successful 2029, Mr. Vaishnaw said.
People basal astatine the entranceway of a tunnel, completed arsenic portion of the Mumbai–Ahmedabad slug bid task successful Navi Mumbai, connected September 20, 2025. | Photo Credit: Reuters
“The services are designed specified that a bid volition depart each fractional hr during the greeting and evening highest hours. Once the full web stabilises, determination volition beryllium a bid each 10 minutes during highest hours,” helium said.
There volition beryllium nary request for summons reservations for question betwixt Mumbai and Ahmedabad, and passengers tin get astatine the presumption and board, the curate said.
Standing astatine 1 of the openings of the tunnel, Mr. Vaishnaw pushed the fastener and triggered a controlled dynamite blast to interruption done its last layer, completing 5 km of excavation.
The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) said that the tunnel, excavated utilizing the New Austrian Tunnel Method (NATM), is portion of the 21 km underground agelong betwixt the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) and Shilphata, including a 7-km conception beneath Thane Creek.
With the latest breakthrough, the slug bid passageway present connects the Savali shaft to the passageway portal astatine Shilphata, linking it to the viaduct information of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) project, the NHSRCL stated successful a release.
The NHSRCL said that excavation of the passageway began successful May 2024 successful 3 phases, and the archetypal breakthrough of a 2.7 km continuous conception was achieved connected July 9. An further intermediate passageway (ADIT) was built to let simultaneous excavation from some Ghansoli and Shilphata sides.
Workers locomotion wrong a passageway completed arsenic portion of the Mumbai–Ahmedabad slug bid task successful Navi Mumbai, connected September 20, 2025. | Photo Credit: Reuters
The NATM passageway has an interior width of 12.6 metres and was constructed utilizing drilling, blasting, survey works, and enactment systems nether challenging geological conditions, it stated.
The corp said that the adjacent signifier volition impact waterproofing, lining, finishing, and instrumentality installation, portion the remaining 16 km of tunnelling volition beryllium executed utilizing passageway boring machines (TBMs).
The completed passageway volition beryllium a single-tube, 13.1-metre diameter operation accommodating duplicate tracks for some up and down lines.
The corp besides highlighted broad information measures, including colony markers, piezometers, inclinometers, strain gauges and restricted tract access, on with arrangements to pump caller aerial for workers wrong the tunnel.
Media basal wrong a passageway completed arsenic portion of the Mumbai–Ahmedabad slug bid task successful Navi Mumbai, connected September 20, 2025. | Photo Credit: Reuters
The 508 km-long Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed obstruction corridor is India's archetypal slug bid project.
According to the NHSRCL, enactment has been completed connected 321 km of viaduct, 398 km of pier, on with 17 stream bridges, 9 alloy bridges, and the installation of implicit 4 lakh sound barriers crossed 206 km.
The way furniture operation has been finished connected 206 km, and much than 2,000 overhead instrumentality masts person been installed covering 48 km of the mainline viaduct, it stated.
