Metro-2a, 7 rake unveiled, to reach city by Jan-end
MUMBAI: The first rake for Metro-2a (Dahisar-dn Nagar) and Metro-7 (Dahisar E-andheri E) was unveiled at the Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) manufacturing unit in Bengaluru on Friday. The six-coach train can also function as a driverless Metro, an option which authorities say will be explored six months to a year post operations.
The train is expected to leave the unit on January 23 and reach Mumbai’s Charkop depot by January 27-28, officials from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) confirmed. While it was unveiled in Bengaluru by Union defence minister Rajnath Singh, MMRDA will organise an event in Mumbai on January 29, which is expected to be attended by Maharashtra chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray.
RA Rajeev, metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA, said, “Ten trains are ready at the manufacturing depot at BEML. The first train will reach Mumbai by road on January 27-28, post which some minor works will be undertaken at the depot itself.” MMRDA is looking at initiating trial runs for Metro-2a and Metro-7 by March, post which operations could start from May. While MMRDA was hoping to initiate trial runs from January 14, 2020, it got delayed. On Friday, Singh tweeted, “Visited the BEML manufacturing facility at
Bengaluru and unveiled India’s first indigenously developed Driverless Metro Car. I’m proud of the good work the team of engineers and technicians are doing at BEML. They are the real warriors of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, taking India ahead.”
MMRDA had placed an order for 378 coaches at ₹3,015 crore in November 2018. The authority then placed an order for 12 more trains of six coaches each for line 2B, 7A and 9.