Vadodara: The terminal hub for the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project in Surat will be designed on the theme of ‘diamond,’ gelling with the city’s identity of being world’s largest diamond manufacturing and polishing hub.On the southern end of Gujarat, the bullet terminal hub for the industrial town – Vapi – will be themed around ‘flowing river’ reflecting the gushing waters of Daman Ganga. After Sabarmati and Vadodara, the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) which is implementing the Ahmedabad-Mumbai high speed rail corridor project has finalized the designs of terminal hubs of Surat and Vapi. NHSRCL is close to finalizing design of Bilimora station which is likely to be themed around mangroves.“As Surat is known as India’s diamond hub, the entire terminal building will be themed around diamond. The exteriors of the terminal building will look like multiple diamonds kept in a row while the aerial view of the building will also reflect shape of a diamond. Not just the exterior portion or façade of the building, even the interiors will have creatives and caricatures as well as tiles in diamond shape,” said Dhananjay Kumar, NHSRCL’s spokesperson.The bullet train station for Surtis will come up at Antroli village, nine km away from the existing railway station. Interestingly, the terminal building for Surat will be an elevated structure as national highway (NH-48) will pass below it. The station for Vapi will be constructed at Dungra village, located near the state highway and roughly 5.5 km away from NH-48. Of the total 12 terminal hubs to be constructed for the bullet train on the 508-km high-speed corridor, four will be in Maharashtra including the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), Thane, Virar and Boisar while eight including that at Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati will come up in Gujarat. “The designs of the stations except BKC will be finalized within next 30 days,” he said.“Except BKC, Ahmedabad and Vadodara, all nine other stations will have different designs but will follow same pattern. All the terminal stations will be three-layered with ground floor acting as entrance points, first floor as concourse and the second floor will have station and platforms,” said Kumar. The concourse on the first floor of the terminals will have utilities, booking counters besides food courts and shops.Joint measurement surveys completed in Anand-KhedaVadodara: Joint measurement surveys, which is an important process for land acquisition, has been completed in two districts - Anand and Kheda.According NHSRCL officials, the surveys were completed with the participation of land owners and revenue officers.“Of the eight districts where we need to acquire land, 80 % of joint measurement survey has been finished in Ahmedabad and Vadodara,” said Pradeep Ahirkar, chief project manager of NHSRCL.“Similarly, nearly 60 % of joint measurement survey has got over in Bharuch and Valsad, while that in Navsari and Surat has started,” he said.Officials said they will start getting land October onwards. “We believe that we will receive major parts of land for the project by December,” he said.

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