Final phase of metro trials to begin from today

By the end of March, city folks will get to travel in a new, eco-friendly and modern way. The Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC) has handed over the first metro train set to RDSO for the final phase of the trials, which will go on for 8 to 10 days. After the completion of trials, the RDSO will send its report to the ministry of railways, from where it will be shared with the commissioner of railway safety.

“Around March 6, the commissioner of railway safety is expected to give clearance for the commercial run of metro train from March 26 onwards,” said a senior official of LMRC.

On Sunday, RDSO engineers and technical staff fitted the train set with all required instruments for final trials, scheduled to start on Monday. The project has already obtained the speed certificate from the RDSO after the trials that took place about 10 days ago. The speed certificate is important from the point of view of safety. The maximum speed of the Lucknow metro is 90 kmph.

An LMRC official said, “The four coaches of LMRC train have the capacity to travel with 1,100 passengers at a time. The plan is to ferry around 60-70,000 passengers per day, through four sets of trains. Later, the number of trains on the route will be increased. Meanwhile, the second set of four metro coaches will be dispatched from the yards of Alstom in Andhra Pradesh in March. Those coaches are expected to reach the state capital by March 10. Manufacturing of two more trains sets has started in Alstom’s factory. These will be delivered in April.