The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has awarded contractor for manufacturing 39 trains comprising 234 cars for Metro Line 4 & 4A (Wadala-Kasarvadavali-Gaimukh).
The contract has been awarded to Bombardier Transportation, India and Bombardier Transportation, GmbH on Thursday.
With this, after Bharat Earth Movers, which is manufacturing metro rakes for Line 7 (Dahisar East to Andheri East) and 2A (Dahisar to DN Nagar, Andheri), the second contract on similar lines is given to an Indian company taking forward the Make in India initiative of the government.
Reportedly, in July 2020 MMRDA's tendering process for procurement of rolling stock a Chinese company had also shown interest however, it did not qualify for the said work. The Free Press Journal had reported that in November 2020 MMRDA had managed to get funding from a German based funding agency-- KfW.
Loan of worth Rs 4,000 crore approved for procurement of rolling stock, setting up integrated ticketing system and multi modal integration for both Metro Line 4 and 4A lines.
According to the MMRDA, after allotment of tender the said manufacturing company is expected to deliver the first prototype train is 84 weeks’ time period; i.e by the year 2023 the first metro train for both Metro Line 4 and 4A will arrive in Mumbai.
Currently, the construction of both these metro line comprising 32.32 kilometres long having 32 stations is underway. The total project cost is amounting to Rs 14,549 crore approximately. This corridor is important as it will connect the neighbouring Thane with Mumbai. Also it will passes from Eastern Express Highway and LBS Marg which sees a lot of traffic at present.
