Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed corridor: Trains to zip through Zaroli tunnel at 350 kmph
Valsad (PTI): In a significant breakthrough, engineers have completed the first mountain tunnel on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail corridor through which trains will zip past at a speed of 350 km per hour, officials said.
The 350-metre-long horse-shoe shape tunnel has been built to perfect alignment in the mountains of Zaroli village near here as even a minor flaw could play spoilsport.
The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) plans to build six more tunnels on the 508-km route between Mumbai and Ahmedabad that will be connected with state-of-the-art Shinkansen trainsets to be procured from Japan.
"What makes us celebrate it is that it is the first tunnel in India through which a train with a speed of 350 kmph will pass," S P Mittal, Chief Project Manager of the Valsad section, told PTI on Thursday.
He said his team did not face a single untoward incident over the entire construction period.
"The biggest challenge for us was how to keep the alignment of the tunnel absolutely straight because the bullet train will run at a speed of 350 kmph and a minor alignment flaw can play spoilsport. So every specification has to be followed precisely and you will not find a deviation of even a single millimetre," Mittal said.
Bullet Train Project accomplishes Major Milestone 🚄 🛤️ 🗻
— Darshana Jardosh (@DarshanaJardosh) October 6, 2023
In a short span of 10 months, the team at Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor achieves important breakthrough of First Mountain Tunnel for the Bullet Train.
📍Zaroli Village, Valsad district#BulletTrain#MAHSR pic.twitter.com/vlIQVxmgMC
The NHSRCL has awarded the contract to Larsen and Toubro and the technique that has been used to make the tunnel is the well-established New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM), which has already been used in India for rail and road projects in several mountain areas.
"We have just dug the skeleton structure of the complete tunnel and the finishing work will start now," he added.
According to Mittal, it took more than a year and a large workforce to complete the tunneling work.
He also expressed great satisfaction as it happened to be the first mountain tunnel built under his direct supervision.
When blasts are carried out for such tunnels, the safety of the workers and people residing in the vicinity are paramount, he said.
"We took every precaution so that stones, boulders or any other such material did not spread in the nearby area and hurt villagers or our workers," Mittal said.
After coming into existence in 2016, the NHSRCL laid the foundation stone of the bullet train project in 2017 and it was proposed to be ready by December 2023. However, land acquisition issues delayed the ambitious project.
Though the construction work is going on in full swing, the new deadline for the project's operationalisation is yet to be announced.
"A commuter using this bullet train can finish the 508-km journey in two hours and seven minutes. At present, the train journey takes about five hours," the spokesperson of the NHSRCL told PTI.
In a statement, NHSRCL said the tunnel was located around one kilometre away from Zaroli village of Umbergaon taluka in Valsad.
"The tunnel structure comprises a tunnel, tunnel portal, and other connecting structures like tunnel entrance hood. NHSRCL has achieved a major milestone with the breakthrough of the mountain tunnel," it said.
The mountain tunnel is 350 metres long, 10.25 metres high with a diameter of 12.6 m.
The six other mountain tunnels for which contracts have been awarded are in Kasabekaman, Chandrapada, Chandasar, Mithagar, Vasantwadi and Ambesari in Maharashtra's Palghar district, some 100 kilometres from Mumbai, officials said.
The tunnels are being built using the New Austrian Tunnel Method (NATM) which includes drilling holes on the tunnel face, charging of explosives, controlled blasting, removal of muck (blasted rock pieces), and installation of primary support, which includes steel ribs, lattice girder, shotcrete, and rock bolts based on the type of rocks as assessed by geologist after each blast.
The NATM was used to build tunnels in the Austrian Alps and has proved to be very useful in diversified geological conditions where forecasting of the rock mass is difficult due to rapidly changing geology.
The high-speed train corridor also has a 21 kilometre tunnel between Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai and Shilphata in Thane district. Seven kilometres of this structure will be under Thane creek, making it the first undersea tunnel in the country.
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Real Madrid fines Valverde and Tchouaméni half a million euros each for altercation
Barcelona (AP): Real Madrid slapped players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni with half-a-million-euro ($588,000) fines on Friday for their altercation during practice.
The massive fines came a day after the midfielders tussled when the team trained. Valverde said in a post on social media on Thursday that no punches were thrown. But Valverde knocked his head on a table and he suffered a small cut that required a brief hospital visit.
On social media, Valverde initially called it a “meaningless fight” with a teammate and said “everything has been blown out of proportion."
His employers, however, considered it a significant enough breach of team discipline to nail both Valverde and Tchouaméni with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player. The half-a-million euro penalties reflect the reputational damage the club was enduring in a chaotic end to a disappointing season.
In a statement, the 15-time European champion said its disciplinary action was concluded after both players expressed to the club “their complete remorse for what happened and apologized to one another.”
Madrid added they also apologized to their teammates, the coaching staff and club supporters, as well as showing their willingness to accept whatever disciplinary action the club deemed “opportune.”
Tchouaméni was back training with Madrid on Friday, two days before they play at Barcelona in a clasico. Madrid has to win otherwise Barcelona will be crowned La Liga champion.
After being notified of the fine, he posted a public apology to the club and its fans on social media.
“What happened this week in training is unacceptable,” Tchouaméni wrote. "I say this while thinking about the example we are expected to set for young people, whether in football or at school.
“Above all, I am sorry for the image we projected of the club.”
Valverde was not at practice due to the head knock.
Both players are set to play in the World Cup next month, with Tchouaméni playing for France and Valverde for Uruguay.
Chaotic end to a poor season
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The run-in between the players, who for seasons have played side by side in Madrid's midfield, came after they argued this week in previous training sessions. But tempers boiled over on Thursday. Spanish media was rife with reports that the players previously disagreed over the club's decision to let coach Xabi Alonso go after just months on the job.
It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training this week. Álvaro Carreras confirmed he was in a “minor” incident with a teammate. Spanish media said he and fellow defender Antonio Rüdiger got into a scuffle.
Álvaro Arbeloa, the coach who was promoted from Madrid's reserve team when Alonso was fired in January, will face tough questions on what went wrong inside the changing room when he gives a press conference on Saturday ahead of the clasico at Camp Nou.
Madrid is facing a second consecutive campaign without a major trophy amid rumors in the Spanish media that club president Florentino Pérez is considering bringing back Jose Mourinho to straighten out his underperforming team.
