The National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) has finished building the bullet train’s bridge over the Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad. The 480-metre structure stands 36 metres high, about the height of a 12-storey building, and work on it concluded on October 3, according to reports in DeshGujarat and HelloRail, both citing the corporation.
With it, NHSRCL has completed 18 of the 21 river bridges the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor needs inside Gujarat. The full line crosses 25 rivers, four of them in Maharashtra.
Why this crossing was harder than most
The bridge sits between the corridor’s two Ahmedabad stops: roughly 1 km from the Sabarmati terminal and 4 km from the Ahmedabad station at Kalupur. It runs beside Western Railway’s Ahmedabad-Delhi main line, whose overhead structures rise about 14.8 metres above the ground. The high-speed viaduct has to clear that line and the riverbed, which explains the unusual height.
Most of the corridor’s viaduct uses standard spans of about 40 metres, built from precast segments that crews lift into place. Here NHSRCL used five spans of 76 metres and two of 50 metres. Longer spans meant fewer supports in the water: the bridge rests on eight circular piers, 6 to 6.5 metres across, with four in the riverbed, two on the banks and two beyond them.
To build spans that long over a flowing river, engineers chose the balanced cantilever method. Crews cast concrete segments on site and extended them outward from each pier in both directions, keeping the two arms in balance, then tied them together with post-tensioned steel. Each span took 23 segments. The approach avoids putting scaffolding in the river channel.
Ahmedabad readers have watched this structure grow for several years. News.Gujarat.in reported earlier on the 36-metre piers taking shape; the October 3 milestone marks the end of the superstructure work.
What it means for Ahmedabad
For the city, the bridge closes the last major physical gap between its two bullet train stations. Sabarmati is planned as the corridor’s northern terminus and a transfer point with Western Railway, the Ahmedabad Metro and the BRTS, while the Kalupur station serves the old city and the main railway hub. A train cannot run between the two without this river crossing.
Track, overhead electrical equipment and signalling still have to go onto the viaduct before trials can use this stretch. Residents near the river on both banks should expect that work to continue, though the heavy cantilever construction is now over.
The completion also removes one of the more technically demanding items from the Gujarat section’s to-do list. River bridges, especially the long-span ones, tend to sit on the critical path of rail projects because monsoon floods halt work in the channel for months each year.
What to watch next
- The last three Gujarat river bridges. NHSRCL has not named which crossings remain in its statement as reported. Their progress through the coming dry season will show whether the Gujarat section can stay on schedule.
- Track-laying in Ahmedabad. Once track work reaches the Sabarmati-Kalupur stretch, the corridor’s Ahmedabad end moves from civil construction to systems installation.
- Station-area plans. Ahmedabad’s civic bodies will need road access, parking and feeder transport ready around both stations before passenger service begins.
Sources: DeshGujarat, HelloRail, Webdunia Hindi
This report was compiled and written with AI assistance from publicly reported sources, and reviewed for accuracy.