Seeking to expedite the construction of the ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train project, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday launched major heavy and modern mechanical equipments like Straddle carrier and the Girder transporter to help the faster casting of the viaduct.
This will expedite construction of high speed railway, as it is the proven technology in metro and similar projects. Work has already begun on 325 km (in Gujarat state) out of 508 km corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad undertaken by the National High Speed Rail Corridor, a unit of Indian Railways.
Vaishnaw said if the nation has to achieve results of 21st century then we have to adopt a mindset of 21st century.
“This Straddle carrier and the Girder transporter is a very good example of 21st century mindset...†he said during the launch event and mentioned India is now coming in the select group of country like Italy, Norway, Korea, and China which have been designing and manufacturing such equipment.
Straddle carrier equipment is designed to handle the Full Span Precast girders from casting bed to stacking yard and further feeding them to Bridge Gantry for further erection. This is a tyre mounted self-propelled gantry crane having lifting capacity of 1100MT.
Girder Transporter is designed to transport the Full Span precast girders fed by Bridge Gantry to erection location.This is 27 axle tyre mounted self-propelled trolley of carrying capacity of 1100MT.
The other key dignitaries present at the launch ceremony were Miyamoto Shingo, Minister, Embassy of Japan, Suneet Sharma, Chairman & CEO, Railway Board, Satish Agnihotri, MD, NHSRCL and others.
Addressing the gathering, Vaishnaw stated that to encourage Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan initiative, full span launching equipment of 1100MT capacity is indigenously designed.
More than 97 percent land has been acquired for the project in Gujarat and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and 30 percent land in Maharashtra. This project will improve skillset 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, informed the Rail Minister.
He further stated that the Mumbai Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project expected to create more than 90,000 jobs in this area including 51,000 jobs for technicians, skilled and unskilled workers.This project will boost the overall economy of the area by deploying 1000s of trucks, dumpers, excavators, batching plants, tunneling equipment and so on.
For the construction of viaduct superstructures of 508 km long, Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Project (MAHSR), the State-of-the-Art construction methodologies like Full Span Launching Methodology (FSLM) will be adopted. This technology will expedite the process of launching girders as the precast girders of full span length will be erected as a single piece for double track viaduct.
