Indian Railways using water conforming to prescribed specifications for bullet train project

Instead of saline water, "water conforming to prescribed specifications" is being used by engineers for concreting work pertaining to the bullet train project, Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain told the Lok Sabha today. The ambitious Rs 1.08-lakh-crore Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed 508 km line is scheduled to be commissioned in 2022. 

Being implemented by the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) it is being built with an 80 per cent loan from Japan.

Responding to a query on whether the civil engineers of Japanese team working on the project have refused to use saline water in construction activities and instead opted for RO water, Gohain said the engineers were using water according to specified norms. 

"Supervision consultants comprising both Japanese and Indian engineers have permitted use of water conforming to prescribed specifications. The specifications do not allow use of saline water in concreting," he said. 

Officials said that the Japanese engineers had insisted on RO water as they feared that salty water could compromise the strength of the structure and even shorten its life span. 

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In fact, RO water has been used in many places in the Delhi metro rail route as well, they said.