Driver-less trains may now be a reality for three Metro corridors
The overall cost of the procurement of 63 trains that is 378 coaches or 21 coaches each for one particular Metro line is estimated to be around Rs 3,900 crore
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) assisting the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) in executing Metro projects in the city has initiated the process to procure 63 driver-less trains of six coaches each for namely three Metro corridors in the city. This includes the Dahisar-DN Nagar Metro-2B corridor, DN Nagar-Mandale Metro-2B corridor and Dahisar East- Andheri East Metro-7 corridor.
A similar technology of having driver-less Metro is also being worked by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) executing the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro-3 underground corridor.
The concept revolves around having a supervisor present in the Metro at all times. The supervisor will be in contact with the control room and inform about any emergency or suspicious activity along the corridor to the control room.
As per the draft bid document prepared by DMRC and released by MMRDA for suggestions from manufacturers of Metro coaches, “Coaches must be of modern design, lightweight, and made of stainless steel/aluminium. The trains should be capable of running without an operator or ‘driver-less’ on the unattended train operation (UTO) mode.”
The overall cost of the procurement of 63 trains that is 378 coaches or 21 coaches each for one particular Metro line is estimated to be around Rs 3,900 crore. The DMRC will manufacture only 15 trains of the total 63 trains in order to support the Central government’s ‘Make In India’ campaign.
According to MMRDA officials, because it does not have any previous experience of solely procuring rolling stocks (coaches) for Metro, it has asked the DMRC to procure it for the three Metro corridors initially. The MMRDA will later procure for the remaining Metro corridors.
Meanwhile, the MMRDA’s claim to commission two Metro corridors namely Metro-2A and Metro-7 by 2019 is likely to be missed as the DMRC has specified of giving 4 years and 2 months to the bidders bidding for manufacturing the coaches for the three above mentioned Metro corridors. This means the coaches will be ready only by 2020.
AT A PRICE
- The overall cost of the procurement of 63 trains that is 378 coaches or 21 coaches each for one particular Metro line is estimated to be around Rs 3,900 crore