China-based agency will supply trains for Noida-G Noida metro
A China-based company, CRRC Nanjing Corporation, will supply trains for the 30-km Noida-Greater Noida metro link. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and the China-based company signed an agreement in this regard on Thursday in Delhi.
A China-based company, CRRC Nanjing Corporation, will supply trains for the 30-km Noida-Greater Noida metro link. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and the China-based company signed an agreement in this regard on Thursday in Delhi.
DMRC has a budget of Rs 800 crore for procuring trains for this link.
Mangu Singh, DMRC managing director, Li Dingnan, president of CRRC Nanjing Corporation Limited, and top officials from the Noida Metro Rail Corporation were present when the agreement was signed.
NMRC, which owns the under-construction project, has delegated the construction of this link to DMRC. The metro line is expected to start trials by May 2017 and open to public by November 2017.
“Our target is to get the supply of rolling stock (trains) by July 2017. However, we will ask the agency to start supplying trains by June 2017, before the target date, so that we can open this link before the deadline,” PD Upadhyay, general manager (finance) of Noida Metro Rail Corporation, said.
DMRC officials said they require 19 trains for this link, which will have a capacity to ferry 19,646 passengers.
“Each train will have four coaches, which means that we will have a total 76 coaches. A train can accommodate 1,034 passengers at one go,” a DMRC official said.
DMRC officials said this is the first time they are procuring trains from a Chinese agency. The trains were procured from French and German agencies until now.
“We have asked the agency to start designing the trains right away and deliver the same as soon as possible. Many agencies applied for the project but the Chinese agency submitted the lowest bid,” a DMRC official said.
The Noida-Greater Noida Metro link, the longest link outside Delhi, will connect remote areas of Greater Noida that share a border with Dadri.
The total budget for the 30-km metro project is Rs 5,400 crore. The Noida authority is funding majority of the cost, while the Central government, UP government and Greater Noida authority will share remaining costs.