Chennai factory to churn out Maharashtra’s Metro trains

Children on the Azadi Express Metro train at Dahanukarwadi station, on Monday. Pic/Sameer Markande

The Chennai factory of Indian Railways will make coaches for Metro trains in Maharashtra. The regular and AC local trains, Vande Bharat Express and most of the mail express coaches for Mumbai have been traditionally coming from Chennai's Integral Coach Factory (ICF).

"In the current production year [2021-22], ICF is planning to manufacture 3,500 coaches in about 50 variants. This year, for the first time, ICF will be turning out Metro coaches for the Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation," ICF General Manager AK Agarwal said on Monday.

New train variants

In Maharashtra, at present, the Metro network has been in place in Nagpur and Pune and is now being expanded further. IR is also considering allowing running Metro trains on existing rail tracks. "The other new train variants will include, in addition to Vande Bharat trains, many other prestigious products like Vistadome Dining car which will be running in Gujarat by September, Gatishakti Freight Train with hi-speed Vande Bharat technology and a steam-engine-themed Heritage Train with electric propulsion again with hi-speed Vande Bharat technology," he said.

Also read: Mumbai: Metro Aqua Line 3 to be operational by Dec 2023

Tiranga train on Lines 2, 7

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday flagged off the Azadi Express Metro train, a special initiative by the MMRDA and MMMOCL to celebrate Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. The train will be joining the fleet of Metro Lines 2A and 7... The Azadi Express will add 18 trips, taking the total trips to 172. "This will reduce the time interval between trips from 12 minutes to about 10 minutes helping passengers save their precious time," said MMRDA chief S V R Srinivas.