On October 15, excavation officially began at the Xinda Jinshan Tunnel of the CMSG-3 section of the Chaohu-Ma'anshan Intercity Railway, constructed by China Railway No. 4 Engineering Group, marking the full-scale commencement of tunnel construction within the project section.

The Xinda Jinshan Tunnel has a total length of 532.436 m and is excavated using a cantilever roadheader with the benching method. The surrounding rock grades of the tunnel are mainly Grades III, IV and V, of which Grade III rock accounts for 75 m, or 14% of the total length; Grade IV rock accounts for 120 m, or 23%; and Grade V rock accounts for 337.436 m, or 63%.

To rapidly open up the construction front at the Xinda Jinshan Tunnel, the construction team organized the work carefully, made thorough arrangements for tunnel construction and production, and planned in advance for production factors such as labor, materials and equipment. The project department conducted multiple training sessions on tunnel construction technology and safety prevention and control measures, carried out careful on-site surveys against the drawings, and optimized the original plan, providing reliable safety and quality assurance for the orderly progress of the Xinda Jinshan Tunnel.

The Chaoma Intercity Railway is an important part of the Hefei-Shanghai section of the Shanghai-Wuhan-Chengdu rapid corridor within the national "Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal" high-speed rail network, with a design speed of 350 km/h. As Anhui Province's first intercity railway project jointly built by the province and municipalities, the Chaoma Intercity Railway connects to the Shangqiu-Hefei-Hangzhou High-Speed Railway in the north and the Jiangsu South Riverside Intercity Railway in the east. It is both a direct link between Ma'anshan and the provincial capital Hefei and a new high-speed rail corridor from Anhui to Yangtze River Delta cities such as Shanghai. It is of great significance for further improving the regional high-speed rail network layout, enhancing corridor transport capacity, and promoting integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta and the Yangtze River Economic Belt strategy.