The National High Speed Railway Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) on Friday invited bids for the construction of a 21-km-long tunnel for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor, also called the bullet train corridor. The tunnel will be built between the underground stations at Bandra-Kurla Complex and Shilphata in Thane district, a spokesperson of the NHSRCL said. Bids have been invited for tunnelling work for a distance of 21 km. This also includes a seven-km long undersea tunnel to be built using Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) and New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM), the spokesperson said.

The package is open to Japanese and Indian companies, the official added. The total cost of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor project is pegged at Rs 1.08 lakh crore. As per the shareholding pattern, the Centre is to pay Rs 10,000 crore to the NHSRCL, while Gujarat and Maharashtra are to pay Rs5,000 crore each. The rest is to be paid by Japan through a loan at 0.1 per cent interest.