Department of Civil Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Mumbai - Ahmedabad
High Speed Rail Link
– Challenges & Opportunities –

Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
KANPUR 208016

Email: sud@iitk.ac.in

The views expressed in this presentation are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Asian Development
Bank Institute (ADBI), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), its Board of Directors, or the governments they represent. ADBI does not guarantee
the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequences of their use. Terminology used may not
necessarily be consistent with ADB official terms.

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Mumbai Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Link (MAHSRL) is a

landmark collaborative project between India and Japan
which will be showcased as a monumental achievement of
comprehensive cooperation.

In essence, the project is about Shinkansen coming to India.

MAHSRL is a part of the transportation infrastructure aimed

at improving the mobility in the country.

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

It is very interesting to see this partnership between

India and Japan in the infrastructure sector.

The project comes at a time when there is

tremendous emphasis of infrastructure creation in
India and there is a much talked about figure of
US$ 1 trillion investment in this sector in 5 years.

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Before coming to challenges and opportunities, it

is important to understand a little bit about the
backdrop as I view it.

This project is not like buying any Japanese product

and using it in India.

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Japan has a proven history in terms of planning,

designing, construction and operation of large
infrastructure projects, which include,.
• Shinkansen network
• Seikan Tunnel
• Akashi Kaikyo bridges
• Kansai International Airport
• ….
largely through in-house expertise

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

All these projects reflect the very Japanese way of working.

• bottom up management
• team work
• professionalism

Try to take everyone of board with a project. It is unlikely

that a Japanese team will go to site unless each member of
the team understands the plan completely and his/her role

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Stages in a project

• Planning
• Design
• Construction
• Operation and maintenance

Challenges and opportunities abound in all these phases

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Better and meticulous planning eases execution.

Shortcuts adopted in planning are a sure way to

create pitfalls during execution.

What is ‘obvious’ in Japan is not at all so in India

and vice versa !!
Challenge for Japanese and Indian engineers to
understand each others standards, design
philosophy and procedures along with acceptable
or permissible values for the hundreds of
parameters involved.

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Material
Methods
Machine
Manpower
Front line worker Education
Supervisor Training
Engineer/Manager Certification

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Quality of construction work is huge challenge

• Quality is everyone’s business !!

• People and their attitude are a major determinant in
construction quality.
• Product quality vs process quality
• Quality of material, component and system
• Test methods and specifications
• Setting up on laboratories all along the route for accurate,
reliable and quick results

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Some examples where contractor training will be required
• Properties of fresh concrete
• Slump / slump flow
• Air content
• Temperature
• Chloride content
• Setting time (if required)
• Flowability (if required)
• Environmental conditions at the time of pour
(temperature, RH, wind)
• Planeness of surface
• Verification of in-situ properties (UPV, ISAT…..)

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Cataloguing and archival of QC records as

basis for future maintenance operations

The project could be the first to take the lead for

integrated design-construction-maintenance
operations, in a framework of asset management

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Though the operation phase of the

MAHSRL in still some time in the future,
it is important to prepare adequately
and appropriately.
The Shinkansen standard
There are lessons to be learnt on all will not be easy to
aspects of ‘level of service’ emulate.
A qualitative change in
• Punctuality the outlook is required.
• Reliability
• Safety
• Cleaniness
….
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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Maintenance of all aspects will be a major challenge

and it is important that the Indian company is prepared
• engineering (civil, electrical, mechanical, electrical,
instrumentation),
• development of appropriate inspection manuals and
procedures, and,
• services – housekeeping, security, commercial, food
…..

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

The MAHSRL could

• only be the beginning of several similar independent

stretches, which could then be integrated to create a
network

• usher in an attitudinal change in the way projects are

looked and worked upon in India

• provide an opportunity to interface at several places with

other government initiatives such as Skill India, Make in
India ….

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

A possible model to look at

Similar situation, though in a different sector.

Setting up of IIT Kanpur with the help of a consortium of

US Universities. (Compare to the recent experience in the
setting up on IIT Hyderabad with Japanese collaboration).

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

With creating the NHSRCL, the government of India has

signalled its commitment to start with a clean slate.

The onus is now practically this new found entity to

deliver, with all the available resources being placed at
its disposal.

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

成功する事よりも、失敗しない事の方が重要だ。
Seikou suru koto yori mo, shippai shinai koto no hou ga juuyou da.
It’s more important to not fail, than to succeed.

急がば回れ。
Isogaba maware
Haste makes waste.
年の計は元旦にあり。
Ichinen no kei wa gantan ni ari.
Preparation and planning are the foundations of success.

https://www.linguajunkie.com/japanese/success-proverbs-sayings

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

ローマは一日にしてならず
Reading: ろーまはいちにちにしてならず
ro-ma wa ichinichi ni shite narazu
Rome wasn’t built in a day.

http://nihonshock.com/2009/12/japanese-proverbs-november-2009/

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

:: Thank you ::

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 Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

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