Prototype train for Namma Metro’s Yellow Line to arrive in mid-Feb

Namma Metro hopes to get eight coaches necessary for commercial ops by July.

Bengaluru: The prototype train for the Yellow Line is set to arrive in mid-February, well-placed sources said, paving the way for conducting trial runs on the metro corridor that will connect Electronics City and other parts of
southern Bengaluru. 

The six-coach trainset is being supplied by China’s state-owned CRRC Nanjing Puzhen Co Ltd, which won a Rs 1,578-crore contract to supply 216 coaches (36 trainsets) to Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL). Ninety of these coaches (15 trainsets) will be deployed on the 19.15-km Yellow Line, which will connect RV Road with Bommasandra via Silk Board Junction and Electronics City. 

Civil and track-laying works on the Yellow Line are complete while systems works are going on. However, statutory trial runs haven’t begun because no coaches are available. The BMRCL would need at least eight trainsets (48 coaches) to start commercial operations on the Yellow Line. After multiple delays, things are finally moving with the resolution of most of the “procedural issues”. 

Sources in the BMRCL told DH that the prototype train would arrive at the Chennai port sometime in February and would then be brought to Bengaluru on a trailer. “Depending on customs clearances, we are hopeful that the train will reach Bengaluru by mid-February,” one of the sources said. 

A team of 15 Chinese officials is also expected to reach Bengaluru next month to help conduct the trial runs, according to sources. The trial runs will followed by oscillation trials through the Lucknow-based Research Designs and Standards Organisation, technical approvals and the statutory safety inspection. This process will take three months. 

Meanwhile, a team of 12 Chinese officials has begun working at the Bengal factory of Titagarh Wagons Limited, the CRRC’s Indian partner that will manufacture 208 coaches. In September 2023, the factory received the bodyshells of two trainsets totalling 200 different equipment. However, the work to assemble and commission them couldn’t start because Chinese engineers weren’t available to conduct supervision. 

This issue has been resolved now, and the commissioning of the equipment is going on. 

The BMRCL expects to receive these two trains in the next four months, the source said. As per the contract, CRRC will supply two trainsets every month afterwards. 

The BMRCL has also resolved the issue about the software needed to operate the trains. It has succeeded in halving the software cost. It expects to receive the software (both for testing and revenue ops) by the time the prototype train arrives, the source said. The software is needed to ensure interfacing between trains and signalling. 

The BMRCL expects to receive the eight trainsets in the next seven months, which means commercial operations on the Yellow Line will start only in the third quarter of 2024.

Metro total ridership crosses 100 cr

Namma Metro has ferried over 100 crore people since it began operations in November 2011. The feat was achieved on December 29 2023 according to the BMRCL.  The metro also ferried more than two crore people in a month for the first time. A total of 21334076 passengers boarded the metro trains in December 2023 or 688196 per day on average.