India’s flagship high-speed rail venture—the Mumbai–Ahmedabad bullet train corridor—has encountered a fresh challenge as three crucial Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) remain stuck at a Chinese port. The delay, caused by lack of clearance from Chinese authorities, threatens to derail the project’s timeline, particularly the construction of a critical underground section between Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) and Shilphata in Navi Mumbai.
These TBMs, built by German tunnelling expert Herrenknecht at its Guangzhou manufacturing facility, are the largest of their kind intended for Indian soil. Designed to navigate the complex geotechnical terrain along the corridor, one of the machines features a cutter head with a diameter of 13.56 metres—almost double the size of those used in metro tunnelling projects. This scale was necessary for the 21-kilometre stretch that includes a 7-kilometre subsea tunnel beneath Thane Creek, a segment considered one of the most technically challenging of the entire high-speed rail network.
Despite one TBM being scheduled for earlier delivery and two more expected by October 2024, all three remain stalled at the Guangzhou port, prompting diplomatic intervention. Officials confirmed that India’s Ministry of Railways has escalated the matter to the Ministry of External Affairs, seeking expedited resolution through diplomatic channels. The National High-Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL), the agency implementing the project, has not commented publicly, but internal sources suggest growing concern over construction timelines.
The underground section, awarded to Afcons Infrastructure Ltd for ₹6,397 crore, is pivotal to the corridor’s full-scale operations. Afcons began preliminary work in mid-2023 and is currently building four access shafts—36 metres deep at BKC, 56 metres at Vikhroli, 39 metres at Sawli, and 42 metres at Ghansoli. These will serve as launch and retrieval points for the TBMs. At Shilphata, an additional tunnel portal and a 5-kilometre tunnel using the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) are under development. The alignment reaches depths of up to 114 metres below Parsik Hill, adding urgency to the need for precision engineering and timely equipment delivery.
This isn’t the first time Chinese-origin equipment has posed political and logistical hurdles. Since the 2020 Galwan Valley clash, India has placed increased scrutiny on projects involving Chinese firms or materials. Several major MoUs with Chinese companies were suspended in Maharashtra alone, while bids by Chinese entities for the Mumbai Monorail were also scrapped post-Galwan. These geopolitical tensions now appear to be impacting critical infrastructure like the bullet train, whose timely execution is tied closely to India’s broader ambitions of high-speed, sustainable, and equitable urban mobility.
The delay also draws attention to the vulnerabilities that come with global supply chain dependencies, especially for mega infrastructure projects. While the TBMs are manufactured by a German firm, the Chinese location of production has emerged as a bottleneck. It highlights the strategic importance of diversifying manufacturing locations for critical equipment to avoid geopolitical flashpoints stalling domestic progress.
While NHSRCL has not shifted the official project deadline, the delay in TBM mobilisation is likely to push internal milestones. Afcons has a 5.17-year window to complete the underground stretch, but each month lost awaiting clearance compresses that schedule further. With India’s bullet train emblematic of its leap towards modern infrastructure, setbacks like these serve as cautionary tales on the intersection of engineering, international diplomacy, and strategic resilience.
As negotiations to free the machines continue behind closed doors, the nation waits—and watches—hoping the wheels of progress resume tunnelling soon.
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