Infrastructure
A metro station in Chennai. (Jayasankar Madhavadas/Facebook)
As part of Phase-II of Chennai Metro, The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) has awarded Alstom a contract of Rs 798 crore to design, produce, deliver, test, and commission 78 advanced metro coaches.
The contract's scope comprises the production of 26 metro trains (three-car configurations) with a top speed of 80 kmph as well as staff training.
The Phase-II consists of three lines: Line-3 from Madhavaram to Siruseri (45.81 km with 48 stops), Line-4 from Light House to Poonamallee (26.1 km with 28 stations), and Line-5 from Madhavaram to Sholinganallur (47 km, 46 stations).
These new metro cars will run over a 26 km corridor that is a part of Phase-II that connects Poonamallee Bypass and Light House via 28 stops (18 elevated and 10 underground).
These metro trains can bypass signals and will be monitored by the Operations Control Centre (OCC).
A 25 KV power supply is used in the trains for maximum energy efficiency.
These metro cars will be manufactured at Alstom's urban rolling stock manufacturing plant in Sricity, Andhra Pradesh.
Alstom has provided metro trains to the cities of Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, and Kochi. The company is also currently producing trains for the Agra-Kanpur Metro, the Indore-Bhopal project, and Mumbai Metro Line 3.
“We are happy to once again partner with Alstom for this significant contract for Chennai Metro Phase-II. The advanced trains delivered by Alstom have been operating on our metro lines for many years now, proving their strong capability to cater to the Indian market. We are confident that the Phase II project will provide better connectivity with minimal impact to the environment and benefit the lives of millions of people living in the city," said Rajesh Chaturvedi, Director – Systems and Operation from Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), reports Mint.
In Phase-I, Alstom produced 52 trains for CMRL.