BANGALORE: The Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), which bagged orders worth Rs 1672.5 crore to the supply 150 Metro cars to the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) said that the first set of Metro Cars will be delivered by October 2010 to the BMRCL for test purposes.
“We will make sure that he order is completed in time,” BEML Managing Director, VRS Natarajan told reporters here on Friday.
Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa, who handed over India’s First Standard Gauge Metro Car to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) earlier in the day, said that he personally favoured metro as the best option for public transport now. “I am eagerly waiting to receive the keys of Bangalore Metro Coaches,” he said.
The State government has released Rs 1034 Crore to be spent on coach manufacturing for namma metro and the central government has chipped in Rs 370 crore.
Metro R&D centre
BEML is also establishing a centre of excellence for research and development in Bangalore at a cost of Rs 125 crore, top officials said. “The proposal is in the final stages of approval and once cleared, the centre will come up on 10 acres of land on the present campus,” BEML Chairman and Managing Director V R S Natarajan told reporters.
The centre is expected to carry out R&D to further reduce the cost of manufacturing metro coaches. Presently, by indigenising metro coaches, the cost of manufacturing has been brought down by eight to ten pc, he added.
“By putting in further R&D, we are looking at a cost reduction of about 15 pc,” he said.