BENGALURU: A month after the four-year deadline expired for the Rs 1,578 crore contract to supply 216 coaches (36 train sets) for Bengaluru Metro by China’s state-owned firm, the first set of six coaches for a driverless train rolled into Hebbagodi depot on trailers Wednesday between 3 am and 3.30 am.
It began its journey from Shanghai port three weeks ago and reached here via Chennai.
Their arrival was greeted with euphoria by netizens based in Bengaluru all infrastructure for the 19.15-km R V Road-Bommasandra line via Electronic City and Central Silk Board is ready but cannot be utilized as it requires these special coaches.
In the initial stage, BMRCL plans to operate the trains with Train Operators steering them only. “It is a cumbersome process to get permission to operate the trains driverless. We will start off the trains with drivers but will gradually switch over the signal-based operations,” said a top official.
The arrival of this train marks a relief for both Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited and the CRRC Nanjing Puzhen Co Ltd which had a bitter battle among them due to the long delay.
The contract inked in December 2019 mandated supply of the 36 train sets before December 2023. With not a single train supplied after issuing several notices to the firm, BMRCL decided to encash its bank guarantee of Rs 372 crore. The concern approached the High Court over it in December 2021.
A top source said, “The reason for the delay was that China had to manufacture 94% of the coaches in India under the government’s Make-in-India policy. It was unable to find a local manufacturer here to assemble and test it. Finally, the tie-up with Titagarh Rail in West Bengal was formed paving the way for the manufacturing process to begin.”
A senior BMRCL official said that out of the 36 trains, only 15 will be based on the Communications-Based Train Control (CTBC) System model. All of them would be deployed on the Yellow Line only. “In simple terms, the train operates on its own without a driver as the signalling system will drive the train. It also has an option for manual operations on it,” he said. On the advantages, he added it was the latest in train technology. “Better to incorporate it now than order the regular ones now and integrate them at a huge cost later,” he said.
The shell of coaches for two train sets have already reached Titagarh and the process of readying them into full trains is presently on. “A total of 21 trains are the regular Distant to Go (DTG) ttrains and will be used for Phase-I extension lines,” he explained. China will send the first prototype train for it too later.
The line can become operational by September only due to numerous tests and permissions to be done, said multiple Metro sources. Different dates are being announced by politicians and the Governor too recently.