French firm to build driverless Metro3 coaches

MUMBAI: French transportation major Alstom Transport and its Indian subsidiary will build 248 “state-of-the-art” coaches for the 33.5km Colaba-bandra-seepz underground Metro, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) said.

The coaches will have features of driverless train operations. “The trains are equipped with driverless technology. However, to use it or not is an operational decision, which will be taken later,” said Ashwini Bhide, managing director, MMRC.

The MMRC on Thursday awarded the contract to consortium of Alstom Transport India Ltd and Alstom Transport SA France to build the coaches. The contractor will be responsible to design, manufacture, supply, install, test and commission 31 trains of eight cars. The trains will have a carrying capacity of 2,350 passengers and a seating capacity of around 300 passengers in each coach in longitudinal seating arrangements. An MMRC spokesperson said, “We have achieved an important milestone by awarding the contract. To cater to heavy passenger traffic and to improve frequency of trains, the rolling stock will be also equipped with Communication Based Train Control (CBTC) System having features of driverless train operations.”

Metro-3 corridor is a crucial north-south link which will link key business districts such as MIDC and Seepz in Andheri, Bandra-kurla Complex and Nariman Point.

THOUGH THE COACHES WILL HAVE FEATURES OF DRIVERLESS TRAIN OPERATIONS, MMRC WILL TAKE A CALL ON USING THE SAME LATER