Chennai: The final train of Chennai Metro Rail Ltd’s (CMRL) phase one project was rolled out by Consortium of M/s Alstom Transport S A and M/s Alstom Transport India Ltd at their Sri City plant Thursday. With this, CMRL has placed order for 10 more trains with the Consortium.
The event has taken place right after the inspection of the 10-km Teynampet AG DMS – Washermanpet underground line by Industries Minister M C Sampath and CMRL MD Pankaj Kumar Bansal. It is soon going to be open for passenger service.
The Minister inspected the last stage construction work and the test train which will be used for trial runs to evaluate the safety of the underground line. CMRL officials said that test runs in the AG DMS to Washermanpet underground tracks began today and full-scale operations will start before January end.
The last train flagging off event took place in the presence of CMRL MD Pankaj Kumar Bansal along with Alstom Asia Pacific senior vice president Ling Fang, System / Operation MD Alain Spohr and CMRL officials.
Speaking to News Today, CMRL spokesperson, said, ‘Phase one project of CMRL involves procurement of 42 trains from the Consortium of M/s Alstom Transport S A and M/s Alstom Transport India Ltd through contract basis.
The design, manufacture, supply, testing and commissioning of 42 four-car Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) were taken care of by the firm. Out of the 42 trains, nine were manufactured and shipped from Alstom factory at Lapa, Brazil. Remaining 33 trains were manufactured at Alstom factory at Sri City as part of indigenisation requirement.
“The production at Sri City commenced from mid-2013 and the first train was dispatched in February 2014, flagged off by CMRL’s MD. Following this, the remaining trains were manufactured there and the final 42nd train was successfully dispatched from Sri City factory yesterday. The train will be commissioned at Koyambedu depot and introduced for revenue service. Following the commissioning of 42 trains, additional order for 10 more trains has been placed with the Consortium for phase one extension project. The trains are planned to be manufactured and supplied to CMRL from early 2020,” he added.