China’s CRRC Corporation has been awarded the contract to provide 216 New Namma Metro Coaches to Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL). BMRCL officials said CRRC’s subsidiary, CRRC Nanjing Puzhen Co Ltd, received the contract to supply rolling stock for Metro’s Phase 2 project.
“CRRC is setting up a plant in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh. They have committed to manufacture 34 (204 coaches) out of 36 (216 coaches) train sets in India. The awarded cost is almost Rs 235 crore less than that of L2 (second lowest tender) cost. The supplies will start in the third quarter of 2021,” BMRCL managing director Ajay Seth said.
Deadlines for completion of the upcoming lines of Bengaluru Metro:
- Yelachenahalli-Anjanapura Township in August 2020,
- Mysuru Road-Kengeri in October 2020,
- Byappanahalli-Whitefield in August 2021,
- Nagasandra-BIEC in January 2022,
- RV Road-Bommasandra in November 2021, and
- Gottigere-Nagawara in June 2024.
The 216 coaches include 126 coaches (21 six-car trains) for Purple and Green Lines and remaining 90 coaches (15 six-car trains) for Yellow Line (R V Road-Bommasandra). “These coaches are mainly needed in Whitefield and BIEC corridors on Purple and Green Lines” said a senior BMRCL official. “The 90 coaches procured for the Yellow Line will be Communications Based Train Control (CBTC) enabled coaches”. CBTC equipped Yellow line’s automation systems will meet GOA4 standards enabling trains to operate without drivers with better frequency.
CRRC has also suppled rolling stock to Metro systems in Mumbai, Gurgaon, Navi Mumbai, Kolkata, Noida and Nagpur. In March 2017, BEML received the contract to supply 150 coaches to convert 50 3-coach trains on both the Purple and Green Lines to 6- coach trains.