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IANS/Chennai
The much-awaited metro train service in Chennai was flagged off yesterday by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
Jayalalithaa used a video conference to launch the service on an elevated stretch between Koyambedu and Alandur, covering 10.15km, which would be covered in 19 minutes.
There are six stations on the stretch.
By road it would take at least 45 minutes to cover the distanced if the traffic is smooth - and a couple of hours if there is congestion.
According to the Tamil Nadu government, the Chennai Metro project is estimated to cost around Rs146bn.
According to officials, initially nine trains will run on the route. Each train will be able to carry 1,276 passengers. The minimum and maximum fares are Rs10 and Rs40.
The track will be extended from Alandur to Chennai Airport. The extension will constitute phase I of the 45km project with 32 stations.
Phase I consists of two corridors - Washermenpet to Airport (23.1 km) and Chennai Central to St Thomas Mount (22 km).
The first train was steered by A Preeti, a young woman holding an engineering diploma.
The Tamil Nadu and the central governments would contribute 15% of the project cost as their equity.
The central government would provide debt funding of 5% and the state government would contribute 5.78% as its share of debt fund.
The balance 59.22% of the project cost would be obtained from the Japan International Cooperation Agency as loan.
Meanwhile the Delhi Metro yesterday said it would procure 17 new eight-coach trains, and convert 61 six-coach trains into eight-coach formations on the busy Yellow, Red and Blue Lines of its network.
“In total, 258 new coaches are being procured - 162 new coaches are being procured which will be assembled at Savli in Gujarat and 96 new coaches will be procured from a plant in Bengaluru,” Delhi Metro said in a statement.
“These coaches are being procured specifically to cater to the requirements of the Rithala - Dilshad Garden (Red Line), Jahangirpuri-HUDA City Centre (Yellow Line) and Dwarka Sector 21- Noida City Centre/Vaishali (Blue Line) corridors,” the statement added.
The new coaches would start arriving in Delhi from the third quarter of 2016 and all coaches would be delivered by early 2018.
“The addition of these trains is expected to further check the issue of overcrowding on these busy corridors. Currently, Delhi Metro carries approximately 25 lakh people everyday on its network with the Yellow and the Blue Lines being the busiest corridors,” it added.
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