Chennai: Chennai metro rail (CMRL) ran a trial on the Little Mount-Alandur stretch of the elevated Saidapet -Alandur-Airport corridor Friday. A four-car train from Alandur station ran to Little Mount and made its way back up to OTA (Nanganallur road), covering 4kms on its maiden trial on the stretch.
The test train carrying senior CMRL officials entered the service loop at Alandur station connecting corridor-II (Koyambedu-Airport) to corridor-I (Anna Salai-Airport) at 8:30 am and reached Little Mount Station of corridor-I at 9:15 am.
A message on CMRL's official Facebook page said trials will be conducted for a few months and testing of signaling systems, electrical traction, oscillation of tracks and functioning of trains will be done simultaneously.
A senior officer, who was on board the test train described the trial runs as “satisfactory”, said, “Today we tested the track and overhead traction. This will continue for the next three days. Thereafter, signal and telecom works, that have already commenced, will continue. Similar trial runs will be conducted intermittently between signal and communication works.”
“The train was operated at 4kmph from Alandur to Little Mount and it was increased to 15kmph on its return. Subsequently, the speed was increased up to 25kmph during the subsequent runs,” another CMRL official told Deccan Chronicle. The train made three trips till 12noon. It made numerous stops at various points for different checks and hence more time was consumed to cover the 4kms, the officer explained.
Once the tests over 4-5 months are satisfactorily completed, the commissioner of rail safety would be invited for the mandatory final inspection before the commercial run. Officials also exuded confidence that works on OTA-Airport stretch will get over while Little Mount-OTA stretch gears up for CRS inspection. It appears CMRL also contemplates putting both the stretches for CRS inspection together. The state government has already set March 2016 as deadline for commissioning the Alandur-Airport corridor.
