The first metro train that was rolled out from Korea to Hyderabad recently will be put on tracks for test and trails in next couple of days informed VB Gadgil, Chief Executive and Managing Director of L&T Hyderabad Metro Rail Project while addressing Tours, Travels and Hoteliers at a SKAL International Hyderabad meeting held on Saturday night here in city at Hotel Marriott. He spoke at length on challenges, salient features of the project for three hours.
Travel, Tours and Hoteliers like any other professionals are concerned about infrastructure development in the city for its growth. Hence, SKAL has organized this discussion informed Vijay Mohan Raj, President of SKAL International Hyderabad.
Addressing SKAL members, Gagdil said the three coach train which reached city in the third week of May will be put to test and trail run ahead of its slated inauguration of first phase Nagole to Mettuguda on March 21st, 2015 informed Gadgil. The trail run for commercial operations will commence in couple of days and people can see the trains plying from Nagole to Mettuguda, a stretch of 8-km in the first phase, on the viaduc Gadgil shared.
The total Metro Rail project was taken with the total outlay of Rs 20,000/- crore he said and added that the project is the largest investment of L&T ever made in any one single city. L&T has built the largest precast yard in India in city for the project. It is the first to use Communication based Train Control (CBTC). CBTC is a railway signaling system that makes use of the telecommunications between the train and track equipment for the traffic management and infrastructure control. By means of the CBTC systems, the exact position of a train is known more accurately than with the traditional signaling systems. This results in a more efficient and safe way to manage the railway traffic. Metros (and other railway systems) are able to improve headways while maintaining or even improving safety. It is the next generation of signaling technology that is increasingly adopted in subways and other new modes of transportation.
The project has state of the art rolling stock with the high regeneration of power. Like Dynamo of bicycles that produces free power, the state of the art rolling stock too will generate 30per cent of the power. The trains will be using regenerative electric braking thereby converting the momentum into electrical energy and feeding back to power supply system while braking. As a contribution towards the CDM this will reduce the energy requirement from the grid Gadgil informed as reply to a questions as how L & T is going to manage power requirements of the project.
Answering to another question why Metro Rail link is not extended to GMR airport he said, these kinds of routes especially to airport need direct links without stops in between. Also need provisions for checked in baggage etc and other logistics are required to look in. Though Delhi has this facility, it has less ridership, he informed.
The GMR has already thrown its weight behind extending Metro Link to the Airport. Time only will tell whether this is possible or not. The Centre had sought a preliminary report from the State government on linking the airport with the elevated metro rail similar to the project being built across the three dense corridors in the twin cities and the report has already been sent to New Delhi.
The Metro Rail project when it is completed in five years span will register a record for the shortest construction period for 72 kms stretch in just 5 years, which is a world record he said.
Safety of the passengers is our utmost concern. A provision is made to run an empty train every day morning on entire stretch to check if all the lines are intact and safe for the travel of the passengers, he said.
When asked about impact if any he will foresee on the project due to the bifurcation process of the state, Gagdil replied that whenever states are bifurcated all promises and commitments made by previous governments are honored. We are not perturbed by this process, he said.
The 66 Railway Stations that will come up will have senior citizens and physically challenged friendly facilities and conveniences such as escalators, elevators and stairways, Gagdil informed. Each station is designed to accommodate two train passengers i.e 1800 passengers at any given point of time. The trains will have initially three coaches each one take maximum of three hundred passengers. Subsequently and during peak times/hours these coaches can go upto six he said. This translates to 60,000 riders being transported in a single direction every hour, with a train every two seconds.
The meeting was attended by 75 SKAL Members. (INN)