Mumbai: The Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Corridor, more commonly known as the bullet train project, has inched a step closer to reality. The National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRC) issued a letter of acceptance for the design and construction of a rolling stock depot in Thane.
A joint venture between the state government and M/s Dineshchandra, the blueprint of the rolling stock depot will take design cues from the Shinkansen depots in Japan. Besides civil works, inspection sheds and maintenance depot and installation, the green facility will be built in a way to install solar panels.
The Thane Bullet Train Depot
According to the NHSRC, Thane depot will sprawl 55 hectares, with facilities for light maintenance of the train sets. Initially, four inspection and 10 stabling lines will be constructed, which will be increased to eight and 31, respectively, in future. There will be 200 depot machineries, including 40 types, like bogie exchange machine, underfloor wheel re-profiling machine, testers and data readers and ultrasonic flaw detectors.
Besides Thane depot, two such facilities are under construction at Sabarmati and Surat. The Sabarmati depot will be the largest with an area of about 83 hectares. It will be equipped to handle light as well as heavy maintenance of train sets. This depot will have 10 stabling lines, which will be further increased to 29 in future.
The work, awarded to M/s Sojiz-L&T consortium, is in full-swing. Excavation for the administration building, a large RCC structure, has been completed. The land preparation works for the depot have already been completed under another contract. The Surat depot will be spread over 40 hectares. It will receive the first train sets from Japan, and will have the basic commissioning facility.
The Surat Bullet Train Depot
The Surat site is situated approx 2 km from the planned under-construction station. Daily inspection of the rolling stock will be carried out at the depot. During the start of operation, this facility will be capable of accommodating two train sets for maintenance purposes (one track for inspection and one track for stabling). The same is planned to increase in future to two tracks for inspection and four tracks for stabling. In addition to inspection, emergency repair and wheel re-profiling facilities are also being provided.
As per the latest reports, steel sheds have been erected, while a few machineries have been received at the Surat site, including equipment from Japan. The work of track laying shall be commenced soon under the track package contract.
