The top brass team of MahaMetro including Durga Shankar Mishra, secretary, ministry of housing & urban Affairs, and Maha Metro chairman, along with Maha-Metro Managing director Brijesh Dixit, and Maha Metro director Sunil Mathur recently visited the Kolkata-based Titagarh Firema Company and inspected the workshop.
Titagarh Wagons is an Indian multinational based in Kolkata, West Bengal and Titagarh Firema SPA is the wholly owned Italian subsidiary of Titagarh Wagons Limited. Earlier last year, Titagarh Firema had won an international bid for supply of 102 ultra-modern aluminium bodied metro rail coaches for the Pune metro. According to officials,Titagarh Firema will conduct its first trial run on the factory premises in May.
According to Maha-Metro Managing director Brijesh Dixit, the coaches will start arriving in Pune after testing and approval from different government agencies. The coaches, according to officials, are made of aluminium and are therefore lightweight and energy saving.
According to officials, the contract for coaches is for a total 34 train sets, each having three cars. “It will be supplied by the firm in a span of 160 weeks. The total cost of train coaches is around ₹1,100 crore,” said Dixit.
The axle load of coaches is 15.4 tonnes, lower when compared to existing coaches used in other Indian Metro trains. At present, most of the Indian Metros are using coaches which have a load of 16.4 tonnes. Due to its 15.4 tonnes of load, Pune Metro will save 2 per cent in energy.
Features of coaches
- Aluminium coaches will be able to attain a maximum speed of 95 kmph.
- It will have the capacity to accommodate as many as 850 passengers
- These coaches will be fully air conditioned with humidity control
- Coaches will be equipped with mobile and laptop charging facilities for passengers on board.
- Coaches will also be capable of operation in driverless mode.