NEW DELHI: Although the import of tunnel boring machines from China for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project is facing delays, the government’s decision to boost local manufacturing of advanced construction equipment could provide a timely boost to India’s high-speed rail ambitions.
In her Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a plan to boost construction equipment and infrastructure to boost domestic manufacturing of “high-value and technologically advanced” equipment.
“This could range from lifts in a multi-storey apartment, fire-fighting equipment, large and small, to tunneling equipment for construction of subways and high-rise roads,” Sitharaman noted in his budget speech.
The move comes amid concerns about reliance on imported TBM machines for mega infrastructure projects such as high-speed rail.
The Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project – India’s first bullet train corridor – requires some of the country’s largest tunnel boring machines for a 21-kilometre-long tunnel between the Bandra Kurla complex and Shilvata, including a 7-kilometre subsea extension below the Thane creek.
The German-made TBM was supposed to be shipped to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Mumbai in September last year from China, railway officials said. They added that only one shipment had arrived and the rest had been postponed for several more months for technical reasons that caused a delay in the start of the sea tunnel digging work.
In such a scenario, industry experts believe that the proposed CIE scheme can gradually reduce these vulnerabilities.
“India currently relies heavily on imports of specialized tunnel boring machines and other advanced construction machinery,” an infrastructure analyst said, adding that some of India’s historic railway and metro projects such as the under-river tunnel for Kolkata Metro and the largest railway tunnel in the upcoming Rishikesh-Karnaprayag railway project were built with the help of imported tunnel boring machines.
“A focused incentive plan can stimulate local capabilities, reduce costs and reduce project risks associated with global supply chains,” he stated.
The budget also announced plans to develop seven new high-speed rail corridors as “conductors of growth.”
These new corridors include Mumbai-Pune, Pune-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Bengaluru, Hyderabad-Chennai, Chennai-Bengaluru, Delhi-Varanasi and Varanasi-Siliguri via Patna.
Officials say these proposed roads could be planned as mixed, elevated and underground structures, depending on the terrain and urban density.
It also signals the Centre’s intention to build on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad experience and create a broader high-speed rail network.
“If the CIE scheme is implemented effectively, it can help create a domestic ecosystem for large-diameter TBM machines, precision components, control systems and cutting heads – important equipment not only for bullet trains but also for urban subways and strategic road tunnels,” the industry analyst added.
While the immediate delay in deployment of borehole drilling machines for the MAHSR tunnel is a cause for concern, the long-term solution lies in building local capacity, railway sources said.
“High-speed railways involve digging complex tunnels at great depths and under difficult geological conditions. Developing in-house expertise and manufacturing capacity will be a game-changer,” an official said.
With high-speed rail corridors proposed across western, southern and northern India, the government’s dual strategy of expanding the network while promoting domestic manufacturing of key equipment could define the next phase of the country’s infrastructure push, the official added.
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