To encourage Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan initiative, a full span launching equipment of 1,100 tonne capacity was indigenously designed by L&T for a high speed rail project.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, on Thursday flagged off the L&T-built Full Span Launching Equipment at the company’s manufacturing facility in Kanchipuram - 50 km from Chennai - developed for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project.

Considering the enormous scale of construction involved in building the 508-km long, Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor project, of which L&T’s share is 63 per cent, there is a need to adopt innovative, latest construction techniques and methodologies to hasten the pace of execution.

The full span launch equipment comprising first-of-their-kind ‘straddle carriers and girder transporters’ will transport and erect full span girders as a single piece for the double track. The 40-m long girders weighing 975 tonnes will be the heaviest PSC box girders to be precast and erected in India’s construction industry, says a company release.