Thanks to Global Investors Meet, the indigenous components and technology in the development of mass transit systems for cities such as Chennai are also set to increase.
At the country seminars organised as part of GIM on Wednesday, participants stressed the need to increase the percentage of indigenous components in projects to develop mass transit systems in major urban areas including Chennai.
“The per cent of indigenous components in Chennai Metro Rail is 30 per cent. Efforts are under way to increase the per cent of such indigenous components in such infrastructure projects,” said one of the delegates at the France Country Seminar organised on Wednesday.
According to representatives of a French multinational company Alstom, 29 of the 42 trains for Chennai Metro Rail have been delivered so far.
“Twenty of the trains were manufactured in India. Nine were manufactured abroad,” said a representative of Alstom, which has set up factory at Sri City near Tada in Andhra Pradesh.
Companies such as Egis stressed the need for conducting more studies on “end-to-end connectivity” as part of exploring alternate mass rapid transit solutions.
Currently, 20 km of a corridor of mass rapid transit system is estimated at Rs.3,500 crore. The cost may reduce for such a corridor developed at grade. Indigenous components and technology is expected to reduce the costs further.
Participants at the Country seminars also pointed to a “network approach” in improving mass transit systems for metropolitan areas such as Chennai.
