The production of rolling stocks for the Kochi metro rail will begin at the Alstom facility in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh, from Saturday. Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu will unveil the outer shell of the metro coaches at a brief function to be held there at 2 p.m.
The Kochi Metro Rail Limited is in the final stages of fixing the design of coaches, which will be unveiled within a few weeks. The cost of manufacturing each of the coaches, which will conform to the global safety standards, is estimated to be Rs.8.4 crore.
“The coaches will be designed by focussing on passenger comfort and safety and we have appointed a consultant agency - Tata Excellency - to decide on the travel standards. The coaches will be energy efficient and designed to enable driverless operation in future,” said Elias George, Managing Director, KMRL.
The first batch of 75 coaches is slated for delivery in December this year.
Railway Minister Aryadan Mohmmed, Ambassador of France in India Francoise Richier, Mr. George and representatives of Alstom will be attending the function at the Alstom plant. The ceremony will be broadcasted real-time in Kochi at a function to be attended by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.
Meanwhile, a high-level meeting to review the progress of Kochi metro rail project will be held in Kochi on Thursday afternoon.
