Speeding Chennai: Metro’s 1st commercial run to be from CMBT to Alandur

Chennai: The Metro rail trial run on Sunday was a watershed event, CMRL officials said. In running the train up the 12-metre incline and down towards the airport without a hitch, the project is set for takeoff towards the end of the year. The run on this sector means the entire elevated line from Koyambedu to Alandur is ready for further trials and to get on to the next stage of signaling and station-building.

CMRL (Chennai metro rail limited) managing director PK Bansal along with general consultants and representatives of train manufacturers Alstom India Ltd were aboard the four-car Metro on its maiden 4.3km trial run from Ashok Pillar to Alandur, which lasted about 30 minutes on Sunday morning.

Subsequent trial runs that continued till late Sunday evening only lasted about 10 minutes on each run, senior CMRL officials pointed out indicating that things were going smoothly. The 10-km elevated stretch from Koyambedu to Alandur (5.7km from Koyambedu to Ashok Pillar) is ready for further trial runs now.

Sunday’s trial run is to be followed by the crucial installation of the signaling systems among other telecommunication work required to commission the commercial Metro operation.
The first commercial run of the city’s 45-km Metro network would be from Koyambedu to Alandur.

Coincidentally, two more four-car trains reached Chennai port from Sao Paolo in Brazil on Sunday evening. Of the 42 train sets, nine sets would be shipped from Brazil and the rest would be assembled at Alstom’s coach factory at Sri City in Andhra, near Chennai.

CMRL officials also started partial trial runs on the second line between Koyambedu and Ashok Pillar by operating a four-car train from CMBT to MMDA colony station. Works have almost been completed on the second line and only minor electric works are now pending.