To keep up with the increasing number of commuters, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation on Sunday announced introduction of eight-coach trains in its operations with the first such train expected to start running by this year-end.
The DMRC also announced that all the trains plying on Line 2 (Jehangirpuri–HUDA City Centre) and Line 3/4 (Dwarka–Noida City Centre/Vaishali) – the two most crowded routes of the Delhi Metro – will have eight-coach trains by 2015.
Tests for the proposed eight-coach trains are underway as one eight-coach train, on which parameters such as signalling, safety, speed pick-up, jerking, breaking are currently being checked, has been assembled at the Khyber pass Metro depot.
In addition to the tests, which are expected to continue for over a fortnight, the train is also running back and forth between Khyber pass and another Metro depot at Najafgarh.
“The process of changing the number of coaches of a train involves lot of technical expertise for carrying out the necessary integration and commissioning activities. A team of about eight dedicated DMRC engineers and contractors are carry out several rounds of testing to make it ready for passenger service,” said a DMRC official.
According to officials, the DMRC plans to convert 37 six-coach trains on Line 2 into eight-coach trains and one four-coach train will be converted into a six-coach train. A total of 31 four-coach trains on Line 3/4 will be converted into eight-coach trains. Delhi Metro has placed orders for 212 new coaches for the conversions of six and four-coach trains into eight-coach trains.
