Leading global transport solution provider Alstom has announced the global launch of new metro system and signalling solutions.
These state-of-the-art innovative technologies are ready for deployment in India, especially for the upcoming Chennai and Kochi metro projects.
“We are ready to offer these latest innovations known as Axonis, a metro system, and Urbanlis Fluence, a signalling solution. We are ready to deploy these technologies in India for the upcoming metro rail projects in Chennai and Kochi, and look positively to other such projects in India. India is a good example of the latest market trend emerging in growing economies of the world where urban growth and expanding cities have led to demands for latest transport solutions,” President of Alstom Transport, Henri Poupart Lafarge, told a group of journalists from India at the UITP World Congress & Mobility and City Transport Exhibition.
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Mr. Lafarge said Axonis was a non-proprietary integrated metro system, could carry up to 45,000 passengers per hour per direction, and was designed to run on a viaduct, ground level and underground.
On the other hand, Urbalis Fluence is the first urban signalling solution that is train-centric and train-to-train communication enabling headways to be down to only one minute.
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He said the recently inaugurated facility at Sri City, near Chennai, to build Metropolis trains would serve the fast-growing market of the country and in future Asia Pacific and around the world. At present, the site is supporting the production of 168 metro coaches for the Chennai Metro.
To ensure faster ramp-up of the project, the first nine train sets are being produced and tested by Alstom at its Lapa factory in Brazil while the next 33 and four other option trains will be delivered from the new plant at Sri City. Deliveries of metro cars manufactured from the site for Chennai are being planned for 2014.
Engineering hub
“The Bangalore R&D facility will serve as a major hub for global engineering development in the coming days, and will cater to the entire Asia Pacific region. We plan to double the headcount from 500 by next year,” he added.
(The correspondent was in Geneva at the invitation of Alstom)