Bullet Train to run through undersea tunnel to save Thane creek mangroves: RTI reply

Amid apprehensions of mangrove destruction due to the Bullet Train project, the government seems to have found an undersea tunnel way in Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary (TCFS) to save the sea plants, an RTI response reveals.

No felling of mangroves or other trees are necessary in the reserved forests in TCFS in Vikhroli or Thane areas for the execution of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Railway Project as the line is planned through an underground tunnel in this section, the State Mangrove Foundation said in response to a query from NGO NatConnect Foundation.

Expressing happiness at this assurance, NatConnect Foundation director BN Kumar said: “Our endeavour is to see to it that mangrove chopping has to be totally avoided in the execution of the Bullet Train project.”

It was originally planned to cut over a lakh of mangroves and the numbers have been brought down to 54,000 and later to 32,000.

NatConnect has already written to President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and even JICA ,which is financing the project requesting to save the mangroves.

The JICA responded saying it would closely monitor environmental compliance by NHR.

Development should not beat the cost of environmental destruction, Kumar said in a press statement.

Meanwhile, another piece of interesting news on the Bullet Train front is that the landing point at Thane will be under the mangroves. The land site identified for the Thane station was infringing upon the mangroves of the west. As a result, the building that houses the platform at the high speed railway (HSR) station coming up at Thane had to be disconnected from the main building.

Realising that the environmental guideline prescribes that the passengers cannot get down in the middle of the mangroves, the NHSRCL formulated a unique arrangement.

“Passengers disembarking from the train at Thane will have to walk along a passage created underneath the viaduct, which will take them from the platform to Thane Station passenger building, also called the Station Entrance Building (SEB), which is being constructed just outside the restricted area,” the corporation update said.

Located at a distance of about 600 metres, the SEB will contain all the passenger facilities, such as ticketing, security, toilets, parking, drop-off bays and integration with other modes of transportation.The alignment of the MAHSR corridor features a 21 km-long tunnel, a part of which is going to run under the sea bed. This is going to be the first undersea tunnel to come up in the country. The tunnel will start from Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex station and come out at Kalyan Shilphata, of which about 7 km would run under theThane creek, an ecologically-sensitive zone that is home to a wide variety of rare flora and fauna.

About 1.8 km of this tunnel will be constructed under the sea bed, while the remaining part on either side would lie under the mangroves on either side of Thane creek.

The entire 21-km stretch will be constructed using a combination of two techniques – New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) to carve out 5 km of the tunnel and Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) for the remaining 16 km. NHSRCL plans to get 3 TBMs for the tunnelling process. Each of the TBMs will progress at a speed of 200-300m per month.The reason for using both techniques is to save time as well as remove the requirement for a shaft in the area, some of which falls under the sea bed and some under a flamingo sanctuary and mangroves.