The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will receive the delivery of first Made in India metro rake by end of this month. This rake will be kept at Charkop depot, the work of which is almost complete.
An official of MMRDA said, "The rake will comprise six metro coaches and will reach Mumbai via road."
It is gearing up with all remaining metro construction work so that from March it can begin trial runs of the much-awaited Metro Line 2A that will pass along Link Road from Andheri West up to Dahisar and Metro Line 7 along Western Express Highway from Dahisar East up to Gundavli, Andheri.
The rakes are being manufactured by the Bengaluru-based Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML).
The MMRDA was supposed to receive the delivery of metro rake in December 2020 and initiate the trial runs by January 14 (on Makar Sankranti). However, the pandemic induced lockdown affected the plan, thereby delaying the work by a few more months as expected by the officials.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on January 15 unveiled the country’s first indigenously designed and developed driverless metro car that will run in Mumbai at the BEML facility in Bengaluru. The minister, who visited the facility, said he was proud of the good work the team of engineers and technicians are doing.
The MMRDA had placed an order for 576 coaches at Rs 4,350 crore approximately. As per plan, after receiving the first metro rake it will receive three rakes each every month. The addition of rakes will reduce the time gap between every trips once the commercial operations of metro lines begin.
