Mumbai – Ahmedabad Bullet Train’s Narmada Bridge Starts Taking Shape

South-west of Gujarat’s Bharuch town, a new 1.4 km long bridge over Narmada River is slowly taking shape for the 508.17 km Mumbai – Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR Bullet Train) project.

This 24-span bridge (21 x 60m + 2 x 36m + 1 x 35m) is under construction as part of 237.1 km Package C4 by Larsen & Toubro (L&T). Its site is located between Surat and Bharuch Bullet Train stations (view site on Google Maps), and upon completion will be the longest of MAHSR’s 20 river bridges in Gujarat.

Narmada Bridge’s design includes 25 circular piers of 4m & 5m diameter ranging between a height of 14m to 18m. Its deck will be built by launching precast segments (post-tensioned box girders) in the future.

The bridge’s 25 piers have a well foundation of which 19 have been completed. Per NHSRCL’s press release, 5 of these are more than 70 meters deep. While most of the Narmada Bridge’s well foundations within the river are roughly 60m deep, the deepest well foundation is 77.11 meters deep – just slightly taller than Delhi’s Qutb Minar which is 72.5m tall.

India’s National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd. (NHSRCL) had awarded 237.1 km Package C4’s Rs. 24,985 crore contract to L&T in November 2020.

Package C4 will connect Zaroli Village on the Maharashtra – Gujarat border to Vadodara through 4 stations at Vapi, Bilimora, Surat and Bharuch. Its scope also includes construction of the Surat Depot, 14 river crossings, 42 road crossings, 6 railway crossings and one 350 meter tunnel through a hill.

Per NHSRCL, “construction was affected adversely during monsoon season and flood situation in September 2023. A large quantity of water (approx.18 lakh cusec) was released from Sardar Sarovar dam, resulting in damage to temporary steel bridge to facilitate construction, submergence & malfunctioning of on-site heavy-duty cranes, making work-fronts inaccessible and disturbance to electrical connectivity“.

There will be a total of 24 river bridges in MAHSR project with 20 in Gujarat and 4 in Maharashtra. The longest bridge of the entire project will be built in Maharashtra over Vaitarna River with a length of 2.28 km.

Out of the 20 bridges in Gujarat, 10 have been completed (4 new since January 2024). Here’s a list:

• Par River Bridge (320m) in Valsad district
• Purna River Bridge (360m) in Navsari district
• Mindhola River Bridge (240m) in Navsari district
• Ambika River Bridge (200m) in Navsari district
• Auranga River Bridge (320m) in Valsad distric
• Venganiya River Bridge (200m) in Navsari district
• Mohar River Bridge (160m) in Kheda district
• Dhadhar River Bridge (120m) in Vadodara district
• Kolak River Bridge (160m) in Valsad district
• Vatrak River Bridge (280m) in Kheda district

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– TMRG