Bullet train surveys to begin with BKC plot

The decision on the terminal station for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) is still hanging fire, but the National High Speed Rail Corporation, the firm building the line, has started technical surveys using the BKC plot as one of the ends of the alignment.

In reply to a query by DNA on whether the 5.4 hectare plot at BKC that the NHSRC has earmarked for the bullet train terminal as part of the alignment suggested by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the state government was 'not decided as yet'.

Meanwhile, surveys for the line began earlier in January under the stewardship of the railway's engineering consultancy firm, Rites. Several firms specialised in these technical surveys have been sub-contracted by Rites, said officials. Mukul Saran Mathur, Director of the NHSRC, said: "The geo-technical surveys have started along the entire route between Mumbai and Ahmedabad and is expected to take two to three months. The activities that have begun include geo-technical and geo-physical investigations into the 21-kilometre, under-water tunnel of the project as well as the Final Location Survey to mark the alignment, right down to the pillars on which the high speed trains will run.

The costliest of these pre-construction works is Rs 14 crore that will be spent on rock and soil investigations before beginning work on the twin tunnels, each being about 10.5-kilometre in length.

The Lidar survey, a technique that uses radar and lasers to map a rail route, will be another major part of the work.

According to officials, if all the surveys and other pre-work formalities go according to plan, the physical construction of the line could begin by mid-2018.