The Sri City plant that will manufacture trains for Chennai Metro will be inaugurated in a special economic zone, 70 km from the city, in January.
France-based Alstom Transport bagged a contract worth Rs. 1,431 crore from Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) for manufacturing 42 trains. Of the 42, nine will be manufactured in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and the remaining at the Sri City plant located in Nellore district on the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border.
“We may inaugurate the plant in mid-January and soon after that, we will deliver the first train manufactured in our plant to CMRL,” said a senior official of Alstom Transport.
Chennai Metro Rail, built at a cost of Rs. 14,600 crore, will have two corridors — one, running from Washermenpet to Chennai airport, and the other, from Chennai Central to St. Thomas Mount.
Alstom began work on manufacturing the trains late in 2012. Recently, Alstom was also chosen to supply 69 trains for Riyadh Metro. These, sources said, may be manufactured in the Sri City plant itself. “We are not sure of the plan. It could be manufactured in any of our other units too,” he said.
While the first train manufactured in Sao Paolo arrived in Chennai late in May, the second and third trains landed here on Wednesday.
Trial run in March
The test run of the first train was conducted in the first week of November. The trial run is expected to take place in March next year and the first line from Koyambedu to Alandur is likely to be operational by mid-2014.
