New Delhi, March 16: After airlifting coaches, Delhi
Metro is now using the sea and road to bring the country's
first standard gauge Metro train from South Korea.
The first train arrived at the Mundra Port in Gujarat
yesterday after a three-week long voyage by sea from South
Korea, Delhi Metro spokesperson Anuj Dayal said today.
The four-coach train, which set sail on February 25 from
Changwon in South Korea where it was manufactured, will now be
transported by road on four trailers to Delhi where it is
expected to reach by March 30.
The train will be brought to the Mundka depot of Delhi
Metro for testing and will be used on the Inderlok-Mundka
line.
The Delhi Metro so far possessed only broad gauge trains
but three lines of Phase-II, i.e., Inderlok-Mundka, Central
Secretariat-Badarpur and the Airport Express Line are being
built on standard gauge as per international norms.
The front of the standard gauge train will have a single
glass pane as can be seen in cars instead of two separate
panes as in the existing trains.
Other features of the trains include Closed Circuit
Television (CCTV) cameras inside and outside the coaches,
power supply connections inside coaches to charge mobiles and
laptops, better humidity control and microprocessor controlled
disc brakes.
Digital route maps will be provided inside coaches
instead of stickers and four passenger information boards will
be used in each coach.
DMRC has placed order for 48 standard gauge trains with a
consortium of Mitsubishi, ROTEM, Mitsubishi Electric
Corporation and Bharat Earth Movers Ltd. (BEML). While 46
trains will have four coaches each, 2 trains will have six
coaches each.
Of the 48 trains, only the one that has arrived was to be
manufactured in Korea while the rest are being manufactured in
BEMLs factory in Bangalore. Delivery of these trains is
expected to start from May 2009 onwards and will be completed
by the end of 2010.
The new standard gauge trains are being procured by DMRC
for the first two lines while the concessionaire M/s Reliance
CAF, will provide trains for the Airport Express Line.
The standard gauge trains are only slightly smaller than
broad gauge trains, being 2.9 meters in width as against 3.2
meters while the length of the coach having the drivers cabin
is 22.34 meters as against 22.60 meters in the case of broad
gauge.
Bureau Report