Surat (Gujarat) | The corporation which is constructing India's first 508-km high-speed rail corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad has announced the completion of the first steel bridge over the National Highway 53 in Surat in Gujarat.

There are a total of 28 such bridges on the entire bullet train route and the first one was completed on October 5.

S P Mittal, Chief Project Manager of the Surat section of the corridor, said, "We are erecting steel bridges over roads and highways because it is not possible to have cemented structure due to the total width of highway lanes, including pavements." "The cemented structure, which we call girder and place on the top of pillars, has a maximum length of 45 metres. However, steel bridges can be as long as 130 metres between two pillars," Mittal added.

He said this first steel bridge, erected over NH-53, is 70 metres long and has a weight of 673 metric tones.

According to a statement issued by the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), which is building the rail corridor, "Once ready at the workshop in Hapur district near national capital Delhi, which is almost 1,200 km away from the location of bridge, the steel structure which consists of nearly 700 pieces and weighs 673 metric tonnes was transported on trailers to the site." According to the corporation, the traffic was completely blocked on the highway while the bridge was assembled at the site.

Mittal said such steel bridges are the most suitable over highways, expressways and railway lines, whereas prestressed concrete bridges, spanning 40 to 45 metres, are suitable over rivers and other sections.

"India has the expertise of fabricating steel bridges for heavy haul and semi high-speed trains which run between 100 and 160 kmph. And, this is for the first time, a steel bridge to support a Shinkansen bullet train running at a speed of 350 km per hour was fabricated and successfully launched with precision," he added.

The NHSRCL has used a special painting technique, called C- 5 Painting System of Japan, on the erected steel bridge to protect it from corrosion "as these bridges are exposed to all kinds of extreme condition including sunlight, water and moisture,” 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 time line.

Though the construction work is going on in full swing, the new deadline to operationalise it has not been announced yet.

"A commuter using this bullet train can finish the 508-km journey in 2 hours and 7 minutes.... At present, the train journey takes about five hours," the official spokesperson of NHSRCL told PTI