Nine of the total 25 trains for Kochi Metro are expected to arrive here by September end, anticipating the commissioning of the project’s phase 1-A (the 18-km-long Aluva-Maharaja’s College Ground corridor) in April, the revised deadline.
The deadline for readying the Aluva-Palarivattom corridor has been reset to March. Rest of the 16 three-coach trains would arrive in a phased manner in another year when the metro works were expected to gain pace beyond Vyttila in the Kunnara Park-Pettah corridor, official sources said. The first train that arrived here in January was a prototype and was put to extensive test runs at the coach maintenance yard at Muttom. It also underwent trial runs in the Muttom-Edappally corridor where different components were evaluated.
The second train is expected here by July 8. It is expected to undergo a whole gamut of static and dynamic tests such as cruising at the maximum speed of 90 km per hour, carrying a specified load, etc.
The MD of Alstom (Transport – India and South Asia), Bharat Salhotra, said that engineering changes had been incorporated in the second train based on the performance evaluation of the first train. “The first train was delivered around five months ahead of schedule, for which some components were airlifted from countries as far as Brazil. Based on alterations done for the second train, we have moved over to production mode and four trains for Kochi Metro are in different stages of manufacture at our factory in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh,” he said.
Commercial operations
Officials of the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) will inspect the trains that arrive till August – their drawings and other documents to certify them as safe – following which the Commissioner for Railway Safety (CRS) will issue safety certificates. Only then the commercial operations will begin.
“We do not need all 25 trains until phase one is completed up to Pettah, and possibly up to Thripunithura as has been envisaged now. This is because the Rs.633-crore order was placed with Alstom for trains in the 25-km-long Aluva-Pettah corridor,” KMRL sources said.
In the meantime, DMRC sources said that the Aluva-Palarivattom metro corridor would be ready for commissioning by March 2017, while operations could be extended up to Maharaja’s College Ground in April. Civil works got over in the Aluva-Palarivattom corridor on Sunday when the last girder was placed. All civil works in the stretch up to Maharaja’s Ground will be over by October. The commencement of operations will depend on the issuance of safety certificate.
