Alstom completes in Lapa plant the first train for Chennai metro, in India
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Alstom Transport plant in Lapa (São Paulo, Brazil) has completed the manufacturing of the first trainset for Chennai metro (India), thus achieving an important milestone in the 243 M€ contract signed by the company in 2010 to supply 42 trainsets to Chennai Metro Rail Limited[1].
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The...
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4 cars Metropolis stainless steel trains feature electrically operated automatic sliding doors, larger gangway, air-conditioning, dedicated space for passengers with reduced mobility, route map in English & Tamil, LED display and announcement for passenger information, and luggage racks. They will be equipped with a regenerative braking system ensuring significant energy savings.
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The first 9 trains are being manufactured in the Alstom Transport Lapa plant in (Brazil), while the other 33 trains have just started to be produced in India, in the newly built Sri City plant, Alstom’s first rolling stock factory in India. To seamlessly continue the production of the trains in Sri City, a significant technology transfer was performed between the Brazilian and the Indian unit. 65 Indian employees were tutored and trained in Brazil in order for them to acquire the knowledge and experience necessary to meet the requirements defined by the customer . Manufacturing processes
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, and best practices were shared, creating an important knowledge exchange between two BRIC countries.
The train will soon be shipped to India out of Santos port. Arrival in the port of Chennai is scheduled for beginning of June. In Chennai the four cars will be assembled and will commence a 4 months testing process.
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Chennai’s metro project has been initiated in 2007. The phase 1 consists of two interconnected lines, linking North Chennai to the Airport in the South and Chennai Central to St. Thomas Mount. It will include 32 stations -19 equipped with full size platform screen doors- over 45 km (24 km underground and 21 km elevated). These lines have been planned with a capacity to carry more than 500,000 people daily and a frequency between two trains as short as 3 minutes. The entire project is scheduled to be completed by 2014-2015.
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Alstom has sold more than 4.000 Metropolis metro around the world, equipping cities such as Amsterdam, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Nanking, Santiago, Santo Domingo, São Paulo, Shanghai and Singapore, among others. One out of every four metros operating worldwide is an Alstom metro. Alstom metropolis metro have travelled over 400 million kilometers.
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Bullet trains should be affordable to all: Bansal.
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New Delhi: Reluctant to draw a timeline for the launch of bullet trains in the country, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal today said they need to be made affordable for common man and not just for the premier travellers.
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“It...
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will be difficult to say when we will have bullet trains. But we have started some preliminary work on it. Our aim is to make tangible progress but not possible to give a timeline for it,” he said on the proposed high speed rail corridor project.
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“This is an aspirational project which involves high cost. High speed trains at 350 kmph speed is our aspirational project and we have selected Mumbai-Ahmedabad route as a pilot project,” Bansal said at a seminar in New Delhi.
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“But the cost involved in the 534 km long Mumbai-Ahmedabad project is gigantic high. It is estimated to cost about Rs 63,000 crore,” he said.
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The minister said high speed trains should not remain confine to a particular class but should be “affordable for all”.
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“This must be made affordable for common man and it should not be only for premier class,” Bansal said.
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Railways have identified seven routes for conducting pre-feasibility study for high speed corridors including Delhi-Agra-Patna, Howrah-Haldia, Chennai-Bangalore-Thiruvanathapuram and Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad.
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“Since it has to be executed with the participation of private players, finalisation of revenue models for the proposed high speed corridors are very important. Whatever finance model will be, it should be win-win situation for all of us,” he said.
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The seminar on High Speed Train in India: Issues and Options, was organised by the Institution of Railway Electrical Engineers.
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Stating that it would be difficult to get funds for the high speed trains from the Rail Budget, the minister said, “State governments should be our partners in the project. We have to find ways to generate funds for it as it would be difficult to get funds from the budget.”
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The railway is forming High Speed Rail Authority to execute the project.
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Bansal said he had travelled in bullet trains in Japan, Korea and France during his visit to these countries.
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“There is no denying the fact that faster mode of transport accelerates development…the introduction of high speed trains would add to the country’s growth story as railways contribute about 2 percent in the GDP,” he said.
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On the possibility of getting Japanese expertise for the project, he said, “We would like to have talks with all countries who have high speed trains and we would like to get best out of it for our system.”
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About the scope of increasing speed of trains on existing tracks, Bansal said, “Our endeavour is to increase the speed on the Delhi-Mumbai route. Currently, Bhopal Shatabdi runs at a higher speed between Delhi and Agra only.”
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