Chennai Metro Rail Ltd has placed orders for the supply of 42 sets of 4-car coach configuration (168 coaches), including the supply of spares and maintenance kits with the M/s Alstom Transport SA and Alstom Projects India Consortium.
The tender for the supply of coaches and tools was given to the Consortium for a total cost of Rs 1471.3 crore and the scope of the work comprises ‘Design, manufacture, supply, testing and commissioning' of coaches, including training in operation and maintenance.
The cars will be of state-of-the-art design with air-conditioning and light weight made of steel with 3 phases AC drive and regenerative braking system. The cars will have automatic train protection (ATP) and automatic train operation (ATO). All cars are provided with electrically operated biparting automatic sliding doors to ensure the safety of passengers. Besides, these coaches will have electronic route map, public address system, passenger emergency intercoms, video surveillance and CCTV. Each rake shall have two wheelchair parking locations for the benefit of physically challenged persons. The cars will be equipped with gang ways to facilitate easy movement of passengers from one car to another. The cars will operate on 25 KV through an overhead caternary system.
Each car will be provided with first-class seating section in the coach closest to the operators cab. The 4-car configuration will be designed and manufactured for future conversion to a 6-car rake at a later date when traffic demand goes up.
The maximum allowable operating speed of the vehicles will be 80 kmph with a maximum design speed of 90 kmph. For a 4-car metro rake composition the capacity will be 1,276 persons, including seating and standing, says a Metro Rail press release.
