The Lucknow Metro has received the much-awaited clearance from the Commissioner Metro Railway Safety for starting its commercial run for public.
CMRS Satish Kumar Pandey gave his certification to the Lucknow Metro after “inspecting the trial run of the train at the maximum operating speed of 80 kmph,” the Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation, the agency responsible for its construction, announced on Monday evening.
The inspection was carried out by Mr. Pandey along with senior LMRC officials by running the train from the Transport Nagar Metro station to Charbagh Metro station to and fro.
“The trial run was completed successfully,” said Amit Kumar Srivastava, LMRC spokesperson.
Kumar Keshav, Managing Director of LMRC, said: “Getting all the required technical clearances from the Ministry of Railway and finally certification from the Commissioner Metro Rail Safety today to commence revenue operations on the Priority Corridor of the Lucknow Metro Project from Transport Nagar to Charbagh has been a great achievement for all of us”.
The Lucknow Metro would soon be open to public use “at any convenient date,” Mr. Keshav said.
The CMRS had earlier inspected the Metro project thrice in July and once in August but wanted some additional tests of running the train at the maximum speed of 80 kmph, as per mandatory requirements.
The work for the Lucknow Metro started in September 2014 and the trial run on its priority corridor was conducted on December 1, 2016. Amid much publicity by the previous Samajwadi Party government, the services were slated to start on March 26. The target, however, could not be met and even after the Yogi Adityanath government came the power the project kept getting delayed.
After all all works on the priority section of the rail and required trials for safety measure were complete, and arrival of the required number of trains, the Lucknow Metro only required the clearance from the CMRS to start services.
Metro services in Lucknow will start with the 8.5 km-long ‘priority corridor’ on the North-South line (Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport to Munshipulia), which is also Phase-1A of the project.
The total distance of the North-South Corridor is 22. 878 km, consisting of 21 stations, including right elevated ones. The entire stretch of the Phase-1A of the Metro is expected to be completed by 2019.
The second phase of the project is the East-West Corridor, stretching from the Charbagh Railway station to Vasantkunj, a distance of 11km. Though included in the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the Metro, it is yet to get approval. There will be only 12 stations on this stretch.
The estimated cost of the 22.878 km long Phase-1A of the project is ₹6,928 crore, a joint venture of the State and Central governments. The Lucknow Metro will also get a loan assistance of €450 million (₹3,502 cr) from European Investment Bank (EIB) for its Phase-1A project.
The estimated expenditure for “Priority Corridor,” which is operational first, is ₹2,000 crore. Metro-man E. Seedharan is the principal advisor of the Lucknow Metro.
According to the project DPR, daily expected ridership on the North-South corridor is 6.44 lakh (year 2020), while for the East-West line it is much less at 2.43 lakh, also estimated for the year 2020. The capacity of each six coach unit is 1574 passengers.
The Lucknow Metro was last year adjudged the best Metro project for “Excellence in Innovative Designs” at the 5th Annual Metro Rail Summit in New Delhi. The exterior and interior of the train would prominently feature the rich culture of Lucknow, also known as the City of Nawabs. The front shape of train shows the spirit of the Roomi Gate, Bara-Imambara & Asifi Masjid, while the exterior livery in golden colour is inspired by the Chikankari craftsmanship.
One of the highlights of the project would be the special balanced cantilever span of 255 meters, executed at a height of 21.5 meters above ground while passing over 12 railway tracks.
