Leading players have shown interest in supplying coaches for the Light Metro project proposed for 35.12 km in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode. A meeting was convened here on Wednesday by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to finalise the coaches’ specifications ahead of floating tenders for the Rs.6,728-crore project in the two cities.
Twelve global rolling stock (coaches) suppliers took part in the meeting coordinated by E. Sreedharan, Principal Adviser of DMRC. Representatives of rolling stock suppliers, including Alstom, Bombardier Transportation, Mitsubishi, Kawasaki, Siemens, Hitachi and Caf, explained similar projects executed by them and their keenness in supplying coaches for the Light Metro project.
All suppliers met specifications such as 50-metre turning radius and 6 per cent gradient spelled out in the detailed project report (DPR), sources told The Hindu .
They told the meeting that they were supplying coaches with similar specifications in other countries.
Officials invitedThe suppliers invited the project officials to visit their projects abroad.
Mr. Sreedharan, who had mooted the Light Metro instead of the scrapped monorail, reminded the suppliers of the three-year timeframe fixed for completing the first phase of the project. He asked them to give in writing at the earliest the specifications of the rolling stock supplied by them in other countries.
Meeting with ChandyIn the evening, Mr. Sreedharan called on Chief Minister Oommen Chandy at the Secretariat.
The meeting assumes significance in the wake of the delay in getting Cabinet approval for the DPR prepared by the DMRC for Light Metro and renaming of the KMCL as Kerala Urban Transit Corporation in view of the switch from monorail to Light Metro.
