Mumbai:
Only a temporary access created for the movement of construction material for a bridge over the Ulhas river under the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project was affected by heavy rains in Maharashtra’s Thane district last week, officials said on Wednesday.
Rejecting media reports claiming that a temporary bridge erected for the construction of the main bridge was washed away in the Ulhas river floods, they clarified that the affected structure was only a temporary access arrangement and not part of the permanent bridge.
“The temporary access was impacted due to heavy rainfall in the region last week,” the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) said in a statement.
The corporation said the temporary access was built to facilitate the movement of men, machinery and construction material for the project.
According to NHSRCL, the incident did not impact the design, safety or execution of the rail bridge across the river, stressing that the construction of the bridge and other project activities are continuing as planned.
Heavy rains in the Thane district had caused the river to swell significantly, inundating several areas, a few days ago.
The 508-kilometre Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor, which will pass through the Thane district, is being constructed at an estimated Rs 1.08 lakh crore.
As per the shareholding pattern, the Government of India is to pay Rs 10,000 crore to the NHSRCL, while the two states involved, Gujarat and Maharashtra, are to pay Rs 5,000 crore each. The rest is to be paid by Japan through a long-term loan at 0.1 per cent interest.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
