Nellore: The driverless Metropolis trains introduced by Sydney Metro recently are produced by the French manufacturer Alstom at their Sri City plant in Nellore, as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India programme.
Both Sri City and Alstom were in an elated mood over the successful launch of the fully-automated trains. Mr Ravindra Sannareddy, founder managing director of Sri City, congratulated Alstom India for crossing a significant milestone.
“It is happy occasion for Alstom and also for Sri City, as ‘Made at Sri City’ rolling stock is plying in Sydney," Mr Sannareddy said.
The Sydney trains are among the 22 produced by the French multinational's rolling stock manufacturing unit in Sri City. The last train was delivered in December 6, 2018, during a colourful ceremony at Sri City.
“We firmly believe in India’s role as a manufacturing and engineering hub for international markets, and this milestone bear witness to that,” said Mr Ling Fang, Alstom senior vice-president Asia Pacific, during the delivery.
The on-time delivery of the trains for Sydney establishes Alstom’s Sri City site as the one of the group’s global manufacturing centres of excellence for rolling stock, he added.
According to Alstom officials, the Metropolis train for Sydney offers maximum comfort and safety to passengers.
The train offers the latest in passenger information systems, as well as areas for prams, luggage, bicycles, wheelchair spaces and separate priority seating for those with reduced mobility.
Once inside, passengers can move freely throughout the train. The Metropolis destined for Sydney is based on the internationally proven Metropolis train platform.
The trains have CCTV monitoring and emergency intercoms for passengers’ safety. The trains are equipped with a computer-based train control system, Urbalis 400, which reduces the time stopping at stations and the times between each service.
Metropolis trains operate in more than 25 cities around the world, including Singapore, Barcelona and Amsterdam.
In 2014, Alstom won a contract to deliver 22 six-car train sets, as well as the CBTC signalling system, for North West Rail Link, Australia’s biggest public transport project and first fully-automated metro network.
Alstom’s engineering hub in Bengaluru adapted the Metropolis and Urbalis solutions to the specific needs of Sydney Metro to ensure fast, safe and reliable services to the residents of Sydney.
With an annual production capacity of 240 cars, the Sri City plant had delivered metros for the cities of Chennai, Kochi and Lucknow.
It has began work on its second export order for the light metro project in Montreal from early 2019 while production for Mumbai Metro Line 3 is on the process, sources in Sri City said.
