An amazing undersea tunnel is currently being carved out up to 65 metres below the earth in India.
Construction of the stretch – which is part of the Mumbai to Ahmedabad Bullet Train – has commenced and it will be the first undersea tunnel in the country. It’s part of a longer 13-mile tunnel in the state of Maharashtra.
The National High Speed Rail Company Limited (NHSRCL) said 4.4 mile tunnel will consist of a single tube which is 13.2 metres in diameter.
Shri Rajendra Prasad, managing director of NHSRCL, said in a statement on the company’s website that the stretch is one of the “most challenging” parts of the project.
He said: “Construction of 21 kilometres (13 miles) of tunnel is one of the most challenging contracts of the Mumbai – Ahmedabad HSR corridor, which includes the construction of the country’s first twin-track undersea rail tunnel of 7 kilometres (4.4 miles) at Thane Creek,” reports Newsweek.
“Three tunnel boring machines and a new Austrian tunnelling method will be used for the construction of this tunnel,” added Mr Prasad.
The twin-track tunnel will be between 25 and 65 metres below ground level. The tunnel is being dug out beneath Thane Creek in order to protect the above environment which is a sanctuary for flamingos.
Construction has also recently been completed on a section of the project which crossed over the Petlad Canal – an irrigation canal of the Mahisagar River.
The official website of the project explained more.
It said: “In order to avoid obstruction in the water flow of the canal, a 45-metre-long span consisting of 19 segments was joined to complete the launching over the canal.”
Construction of the line began in April 2020. A 218-mile section through Gujarat is expected to fully open in 2027 after opening the section’s 31-mile stretch from Surat to Bilimora in August 2026. The final section to Mumbai is expected to open by the end of 2028.
When finished it will connect Mumbai – which is the financial hub of India – with Ahmedabad, which is the largest city in the state of Gujarat.
