Tunnel to save mangroves to raise bullet train project

Tunnel to save mangroves to raise bullet train project

Subject: Environment

Section: Biodiversity

Context: Tunnel will escalate construction cost of Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor project’s 21-km long stretch from ₹100 crore to ₹10,000 crore.

More on the News:

• A seven-km undersea tunnel will be constructed for the bullet train project in a bid to save about 12 hectares of mangrove forests in Maharashtra’s Thane creek.
• This will escalate the construction cost of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor project’s 21-km long stretch from Bandra Kurla Complex Station to Shilphata, from ₹100 crore to ₹10,000 crore.

Bullet train

• It is under-construction high-speed rail line connecting the cities of Ahmedabad and India’s economic hub Mumbai with the help of Japan.
• It will be built with the help of Japan through Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
• Bullet train or High Speed Rail is an integrated system having overall optimization of various components, viz. Hardware, Software, Human-ware, and their interface, etc.
• The train, with a capacity of 750 passengers, will travel at speeds between 320 km/hr and 350km/hr and is expected to reduce travel time between Ahmedabad and Mumbai to three-and-a-half hours or less from the present eight.
• Potential benefit: High-speed connectivity; new job opportunities; Urban expansion; make India favorable destination for high-speed train technologies; Social Benefits (reduced CO2 emission, comparatively less land required than a 6-lane highway for same passenger capacity).