Amaravati Metro | AMRC explores PPP model for Vijayawada Metro Rail Project

Mamta Shah
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Amaravati Metro | AMRC explores PPP model for Vijayawada Metro Rail Project

Vijayawada:  The Amaravati Metro Rail Corporation (AMRC) may continue to hope to avail financial assistance from the Union government for the proposed light metro project in Vijayawada, but going for Public Private Partnership (PPP) for the execution of the project seems inevitable. While the AMRC officials are preparing to present a strong case with the help of MPs in the ongoing Parliament session, which will resume on March 5, they are also exploring the feasibility of PPP mode.

Sources said that AMRC managing director NP Ramakrishna Reddy has met Guntur MP Galla Jayadev and explained the status of the project. “Since the MPs are fighting for the implementation of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, the MD met Jayadev so that the latter can argue in favour of the project in the Parliament session which will resume on March 5,” another official said.

Even though the Vijayawada metro project was one of the major provisions in the AP Reorganisation Act (APRA), 2014, the Union government, in the Metro Rail Policy, 2017, made PPP component mandatory for availing Central assistance for new metro projects. With the Union Ministry of Finance suggesting that a new detailed project report (DPR) be sent for a light metro project as per the norms of the new metro rail policy, it remains unclear if Vijayawada metro would get financial assistance from the Centre or not.

“If one observes the Union government’s attitude, it is clear that it is reluctant to fund the metro project. That is the reason it asked us to go for a light metro two years after submitting the DPR for medium metro,” said a senior official from the municipal and urban development department.The official explained that going for PPP may be the fastest way to execute the much-delayed project. “Since the new metro rail policy mandates private component, we will prepare the DPR accordingly. If the Ministry of Finance approves it, we will get some portion of the funds. If not, we will go for PPP mode and try to get some expenditure reimbursed. Either ways, PPP maybe the way forward,” the official observed.

Speaking to media, AMRC MD NP Ramakrishna Reddy said, “Even though the new DPR would be prepared in accordance with the new policy, we will make a compelling argument to get maximum funding from the Centre. If there is no response, we will go for PPP like the Visakhapatnam metro project.”
Meanwhile, the agreement between the AMRC and France-based Systra Group for the preparation of light metro DPR is expected to be signed in the next week.
“The Systra Group has sent communication that a meeting will be held in Frankfurt, Germany, early next week. The agreement will be signed then,” the AMRC officials said.

Mumbai Metro | MMRC to start Metro-4 corridor (Wadala-Thane-Kasarvadavali) work in April

Mamta Shah
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Mumbai Metro | MMRC to start Metro-4 corridor (Wadala-Thane-Kasarvadavali) work in April

Mumbai: The Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) opened the financial bids for the Metro-4 packages on Monday. The overall lowest bid is around 1.36% less than MMRDA’s estimated cost of around Rs2,100 crore for four packages. If the MMRDA’s executive committee gives a go-ahead to the works, then it is likely to be awarded to Reliance-Astaldi and Tata Projects-China Harbour Engineering Company (TPL-CHEC), both joint ventures.

“We should start the soil-testing in March and full-fledged work in April. There will be barricades on EEH and LBS Marg and traffic diversions will be in place,” Pravin Darade, additional metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA, said.

The barricading on EEH will start from Suman Nagar flyover in Chembur till the Ghatkopar exit near Garodia Nagar, further connecting to LBS Marg. It will then go up to Mulund check naka entering Thane and connecting Majiwada, Kapurbawdi, Manpada and Kasarvadavali. Motorists are already facing snarls owing to the works on the Amar Mahal flyover on the EEH.

The Metro-4 corridor (Wadala-Thane-Kasarvadavali) will be a 32.32-km stretch with 32 stations and it will be fully elevated. It is estimated to cost around Rs14,549 crore. The MMRDA is also planning an extension to Metro-4 till South Mumbai which will be partly underground.

The MMRDA had re-invited bids for the Metro-4 packages in November, as it received bids that were 25% higher than its own estimates in the first round. Darade also said the planning authority has benefited by re-inviting bids this time.

Bangalore Metro | BMRC receives three more coaches from BEML

Mamta Shah
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Bangalore Metro | BMRC receives three more coaches from BEML

Bengaluru: After inordinate delay and cost escalation, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) got three additional coaches from the state-run Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) on Wednesday for its east-west corridor service, with one coach reserved for women.

“The three additional coaches will be added to an existing three-coach metro train, allowing more number of passengers to travel by the metro. The first coach of the new six-coach metro train is to be reserved for women and children. These additional coaches will help in de-congesting the city roads,” the CMD of BEML Deepak Kumar Hota told reporters here.

The three additional coaches will be added to a metro train on the purple line that runs between Baiyappanahalli, an eastern suburb, and Mysore Road in the southwestern part of the city.

“After integrating and rigorous testing, passengers can travel by the six-coach metro by the end of April or early May,” the MD of BMRC Mahendra Jain said.

Currently, about four lakh people use the Bangalore metro each day for commute on its north-south (green) and east-west (purple) lines. The metro service, which opened to the public in June 2017, has not eased the traffic congestion on the city’s arterial roads as it covers a mere 42 km of the 800 km city with ever-expanding suburbs.

The BEML was given a contract in March 2017 to convert all the BMRC’s three-coach trains to six-coach units.

“By June 2019 all the 50 metro trains running on the two metro lines will have six coaches instead of three,” Jain asserted.

With the addition of three coaches to each of the metro trains, the number of passengers to ride the metro each day is expected to double to about eight lakh.

Hitachi seeks tie-up with BEML for bullet train projects of India

Mamta Shah
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Hitachi seeks tie-up with BEML for bullet train projects of India

Japanese company Hitachi will form a technological partnership with an Indian state-owned company as part of efforts to win orders for the South Asian country’s first bullet train railroad.

The tie-up between the Japanese conglomerate and BEML, one of India’s top suppliers of subway train cars, could eventually lead to local production as a joint venture.

The governments of Japan and India have already agreed to adopt Japanese Shinkansen bullet train technology for a high-speed railway spanning roughly 500km between Mumbai and the western state of Gujarat.

Bidding for the project by India’s national high-speed rail company is expected to start soon. Hitachi, with a tack record of building bullet train cars, is seen as a strong candidate for supplying them.

The project is estimated to cost around 1.8 trillion yen ($16.4 billion). Construction is expected to start this year, with the service likely to launch in 2023.

A number of Japanese companies will take part in the project. Kawasaki Heavy Industries is another promising candidate for supplying train cars. Mitsubishi Electric, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal and Toshiba also are angling to supply components.

If Hitachi does win an order, it would ship train cars built in Japan. But it would also consider building the cars in India at a joint venture in the future, marking the first time that shinkansen bullet trains are built outside Japan. Vehicle assembly would be moved to India by 2023, and key components like undercarriages also would be produced locally.

Globally, European and U.S. companies have been more successful in winning orders for major high-speed rail projects, along with Chinese companies touting cost competitiveness.

Japanese companies, for their part, are strong in delivery time management and quality — part of shinkansen’s appeal for the Indian government. Japanese companies seek to parlay their experience in India to the rest of the world. Just in India, six more high-speed rail projects are being planned.

Japan first exported shinkansen technology to Taiwan, more than a decade ago.  A consortium of seven Japanese companies won orders for the high-speed railway that began service in 2007. Hitachi, Kawasaki Heavy and Nippon Sharyo built the first batch of train cars for the service, but production in Taiwan was not pursued due to concern over the potential for technology leaks.

Jaipur Metro | JMRC and Mobycy jointly starts initiative for dockless bicycle facility

Mamta Shah
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Jaipur Metro | JMRC and Mobycy jointly starts initiative for dockless bicycle facility

New Delhi: The Gurgaon-based Green Tech Startup, Mobycy has taken its innovative dockless bicycles to the Pink City, in an exclusive association with the Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation (JMRC). Following the association, the smart, dockless bicycles by Mobycy will be available in the vicinity of popular Jaipur metro stations.

A number of daily commuters, students, and visitors can easily hire these smart bikes to paddle their way around the old markets, forts, touristy destinations, amongst other places in Rajasthan’s largest city.

Mobycy had disrupted the mobility sector with the launch of its smart, dockless bicycles in December 2017. Driven with the vision of transforming India into a greener, fitter, cycling nation, Mobycy has been carrying out an aggressive expansion spree.

The Green Tech startup has already spread its wings across Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, Chandigarh, Gwalior, and Sonipat. Being present across key marketplaces, institutions and universities of these regions, Mobycy has been successful in solving the short-mile connectivity hassle endured by daily commuters, in addition to reducing the Carbon footprint and ushering Indians into a healthier, cycling lifestyle.

“I am thrilled to announce our association with Jaipur Metro. Jaipur being my own city, it’s a proud moment to launch Mobycy in the city which brought me up. Consequently, we’d be making our dockless bikes available for easy hiring in the vicinity of all popular metro stations and marketplaces of Jaipur,” said co-founder Mobycy, Akash Gupta.

“The absence of an organised last mile connectivity option from the metro stations in the city makes Jaipur Metro commuters jittery quite often. By introducing Mobycy’s smart dockless cycles for the commuters to hire and travel across the city at their convenience, we are expecting that the number of passengers in Metro will also increase multi-fold,” said director, Operations, Spokesperson of Jaipur Metro, C S Jeengar.

The dockless bicycles by Mobycy need not be parked at the stations. Users can simply download the Mobycy app and discover the smart bike available in their vicinity specially at Chandpole, Railway Station and Bus Stand Metro Station to begin with. The smart bikes integrated with IoT smart locks and GPS tracking can be unlocked by scanning the QR codes from the app and upon the completion of rides, can be parked anywhere in the vicinity, with the only exception of gated communities and private compounds. The current model of Mobycy makes dockless bicycling highly affordable at about Re 1 per hour ride, or less under the monthly plan, users will pay Rs. 99 for 2 hourly rides per day. Additionally, users will have to sign up using their Aadhaar, PAN, Voter id or Driving License identification and pay a nominal security deposit worth Rs. 199, which is completely refundable. Students within campuses can sign-up with their Student ID cards and pay subsidized security deposit of only Rs. 49.

Varanasi Metro | RITES to study feasibility of cable cars and metro rail in Varanasi

Mamta Shah
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Varanasi Metro | RITES to study feasibility of cable cars and metro rail in Varanasi

Varanasi: The Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) is now planning to start a fresh study to prepare feasibility report of the proposed Metro rail service, it will also explore the possibility of introducing cable cars in the densely populated areas of Varanasi.

According to VDA Secretary Vishal Singh, “The Varanasi Development Authority (VDA) has recently paid Rs 81 lakhs to RITES for preparing the feasibility report of Metro rail service proposed in the city. While preparing this feasibility, RITES will also explore the possibility of introduction of cable cars for MRTS in densely populated areas with the help of an Austria-based company, which is global leader in ropeway technology. As per Metro feasibility studies, RITES can also revise the already prepared detailed project report (DPR) of Metro Rail.”

Singh further said a representative of an Austria-based company has been consulted in view of the success of cable cars in densely populated old cities of Europe and other continents, which match the conditions of Varanasi. He added that apart from other benefits like zero pollution, focus is now on this mode of MRTS.

The Austrian company has conveyed to VDA that up to 80 passengers can be accommodated in a cable car and through ropeway technology, it is possible to transport 12,000 persons every hour while the cost of construction is also very low.

In 2015, then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had announced the Metro Rail project for Varanasi and Kanpur. As per VDA records, in January 2015 the state government assigned RITES to prepare a feasibility report and DPR of the Metro Rail project for Varanasi.

The state government made VDA the nodal agency for the project while LMRC officials were given coordinating roles. In May 2015, an agreement was signed between VDA and RITES.

Delhi Metro | DMRC completes metro trial run on Pink Line stretch (Line-7)

Mamta Shah
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Delhi Metro | DMRC completes metro trial run on Pink Line stretch (Line-7)

New Delhi: The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) completed the trials and testing of the 20.6 kilometre long Majlis Park- Durgabhai Deshmukh South Campus section of its Pink Line (Phase 3) on Monday. The route has also received most of the important and mandatory clearance required for the next step of inviting the Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) to inspect the section, including fire safety, license for working lifts, preliminary Independent Safety Assessment (ISA) reports for signalling and platform screen doors, from the department of telecommunications.

Trial run of Driverless Train

According to press release, “The papers for scrutiny and detailed examination by CMRS are under submission to his office and after these are cross checked, examined and scrutinised in depth by the office of CMRS, further action is expected. In addition, since the application involves voluminous data of civil, electrical, signalling and track, DMRC may also have to supply any additional information further sought by the office of CMRS. After this entire process, it is expected that a suitable date for inspection of the section will be indicated.”

The line 7 of the Pink corridor has 12 stations, including three interchange stations: Azadpur, Netaji Subhash Place and Rajouri Garden. The Metro will also cross Dhaula Kuan at a height of 23.6 metres (as high as a seven-storey building) to reach South Campus from Majlis Park.

Delhi Metro’s new UTO (Unattended Train Operations) enabled trains will operate on this corridor. The new trains, with extremely high levels of automation, will initially be run by train operators, that will gradually, move on to driverless operations (on the UTO mode).

Last week, the DMRC started test runs on the 10.47 km stretch between the IP Extension and Maujpur elevated section of the upcoming 59 km long Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar corridor on this line. This section from IP Extension – Maujpur consists of 9 elevated stations i.e. IP Extension, Anand Vihar, Karkardooma, Karkardooma Court, Krishna Nagar, East Azad Nagar, Welcome, Jaffrabad and Maujpur Station.

Battling with land acquisition woes at Patparganj, Anand Vihar, Welcome, Jaffrabad and Maujpur since the inception of the project, the DMRC is now hoping to roll out services on its longest corridor by April 2018.

Mumbai Metro | MMRC completes 15% construction work in Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ corridor

Mamta Shah
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Mumbai Metro | MMRC completes 15% construction work in Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ corridor

Mumbai: The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) has completed approximately 15-16 percent of the civil construction for 33.5km of the 33-tunnel underground corridor. Work on the longest tunnel corridor in the country began in November 2016.

The first tunnel boring machine (TBM), called Krishna 1, started tunneling from the Nayanagar near Dharavi on November 9 and has now drilled 120 meters. Meanwhile, six other TBMs, lowered in different parts of the city, have combined 394 meter tunnels so far. 17 TBMs will operate 15 to 25 meters below ground to drill 51 km of tunnels.

Mumbai Metro Tunneling
Mumbai Metro-3 Tunneling Work

Like Krishna, the TBMs in each of the seven packages are named after a river in Maharashtra: Surya, Vaitarna, Tanasa, Godavari, Tapi and Wainganga. Each package has at least two and no more than three TBM in operation.

“It’s better to refer to the machines with names with numbers because they are more identifiable. It’s a more personal connection with machines when they have a name. By naming just searched for names that were easy to remember and pronounced because they all relate to those with these names, “says SK Gupta, Director (Project), MMRC.

The Colaba-Bandra connection SEEPZ is likely to be completed in December 2021. The first phase of Aarey Milk Colony connecting the airport will be operational in March 2021, while the second phase of Cuffe Parade will be ready for December brokers.

According to a MMRC official, “The work involves workforce of about 7,600, including skilled and unskilled workers. “This adds staff to General Consultants (GC), MMRC staff, managers and engineers from civilian contractors and several suppliers working on the project.”

Works at all 26 subway stations and one in the rating station has begun and 53 percent of stacking activity has been completed with 16,597 batteries.

About 1500 people affected by projects (PAP) have been rehabilitated to build the corridor at a cost of 23,136 crore.

At the same time two elevated metro corridors are under construction in the suburbs: Dahisar West DN Nagar Metro Dahisar 2A and East Andheri East Metro 7. Even the construction of the two runners began in November 2016 Metro 2A completed around 35 percent of the building and the subway 7 has stopped about 45 percent.

The project is being carried out by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). For the construction of the 18.5-km Metro 2A, 400 out of 957 piers have been erected and out of 1430 U-girders 215 have been erected. Meanwhile, 64 per cent of the piling activity has been completed.

5-km Metro 7 corridor, 227 of 709 piers have been erected and 198 of 1184 U-girders have been erected, apart from 73 per cent of the piling activity being completed.

Here three stations are in advanced stage of construction in Aarey Colony, Mahanand and Magathane.

Bangalore Metro | Bidders quotes 65-75% higher rates for phase-2 underground metro package

Mamta Shah
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Bangalore Metro | Bidders quotes 65-75% higher rates for phase-2 underground metro package

Bengaluru: It is a very surprising news that four infrastructure firms have emerged as the lowest bidders for the underground package-2 but the total value (if all four bids are added) is about 65% to 75% higher than the estimate of Rs 5,047 crore of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC). Larsen & Toubro, Gulermak, Afcons Infrastructure and Italian-Thai Development have offered a package each on the 14 km (approximate) Dairy Circle-Nagawara underground section of BMRC’s 21-km line-4 (Reach 6) of the 72-km project. Bids for this stretch’s civil works, called in June 2017, were opened on Friday.

According to Raj Kumar Duggar, a Vasant Nagar resident, “The lowest bids received by BMRC amount to Rs 8,553 crore. The amount which will be “lost” if the lowest bids are accepted works out to Rs 3,505 crore. The momentum of “losing” thousands of crores is picking up. Bengalureans were told BMRCL will go to any length to “save” money. Who will answer for the thousands of crores which will be lost now?”

“The process of awarding the project to the bidder is not complete. The bids will now undergo scrutiny by the evaluation committee. Only after that the letter of acceptance will be issued to companies, followed by signing of the agreement. If the bidders, who have quoted the lowest rates get disqualified or if the BMRCL decides not to go with the quotations, they may float tenders again or break the existing project into different packages,” said a BMRC official.

Namma Metro Map
Namma Metro Map (Source: BMRC)

“It’s very easy to say who will answer the cost escalation and all these stuffs. But it is also important to note the delays caused on account of these bureaucratic issues (answering people) delays the projects and as we know time is cost. It will go up only. The only reason for cost escalation is delay on part of BMRC. When tender submitted on June 2017, it took so much time to open with so many employees working??? No efficiency- can we think of this in a private company for just 6000 crore round about order. Now BMRC is thinking of separate packages- why didn’t they thought previously. It’s quite a common problem for project businesses specially if BMRC has integration teams to handle split packages. Problem is we have to give BMRC full powers to decide and act & monitor them on speed; efficiency. We monitor them only by thinking what spokes we should put to ensure no money is lost / frauds only – automatically pushing decision making into back seat. Result- delays, general public harassment. Quite surprising.”, said Sujoy Ghosh, a metro news reader.
The higher quotes by the bidders have raised questions about the source of funds and financial implications pertaining to the project. Initially, the deadline set for Metro Phase 2 was 2020 and later it got revised to 2022.

Maha Metro board gives nod to install PSG and PSD on all metro stations

Mamta Shah
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Maha Metro board gives nod to install PSG and PSD on all metro stations

Nagpur: The Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited (Maha-Metro) has taken a decision to install platform screen gates (PSGs) at 25 elevated and platform screen doors (PSDs) at five underground Metro rail stations in the city to prevent accidental falls, suicides and homicides.

The installation of PSGs and PSDs will cost an amount nearly Rs 170 crore and the Maha-Metro will manage to raise the money from its approved cost of Rs11,420 crore itself.

The Board of Directors (BoD) took this decision in the meeting held on Friday. According to Managing Director Brijesh Dixit, the provisions for PSGs and PSDs were not made in the detailed project report (DPR) sanctioned on January 9 last year. It was the same case with Nagpur Metro too. We incorporated it later and have ensured that all Metro stations will have PSGs. A similar thing has been done for Pune.

A four-member sub committee comprising Maha-Metro Managing Director Brijesh Dixit, Pune Municipal Commissioner Kunal Kumar, Directors NM Dhoke and Sunil Mathur have approved the proposal for installation of PSGs and PSDs.

According to sub-committee report, “In Delhi Metro, there have been many cases of suicides and even homicides due to pushing. There has been huge pressure on Metro authorities to take mitigation steps. Delhi Metro is retrofitting smaller PSGs on elevated stations in a phased manner. Provisions of PSGs and PSDs have been done in line-7 and 8 that are under construction. Similar initiatives have been taken up in Metro projects at Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Bengaluru that are under construction. The cost of retrofitting PSGs and PSDs is more than what would have been spent during the construction stage. Also, it will prevent from modifications in software, civil and telecom interfaces and obviate discomfort to passengers.”

As per the proposal, PSDs in five underground Metro stations will save power consumption by 22%. Stations where taller PSDs will be provided, there will be power saving in the air-conditioning load by saving outflow of cool air.

At present, the metro trains in Pune Metro is three-car carriage with a proposal to extend it to six.

Union Budget 2018 | Metro rail project allocations hit three-year low

Mamta Shah
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Union Budget 2018 | Metro rail project allocations hit three-year low

New Delhi: The government has outlined big plans for metro rail projects in India, but the latest Union Budget does not reflect this.

Allocations made in Union Budget 2018 for the metro rail projects are at a three-year low of Rs 15,000 crore. As per the statistics, in 2016-17 Rs 15,327 crore (actual) was spent on metro projects and Mass Rapid Transit System, the following year in 2017-18 Rs 18,000 crore was allocated and revised estimates remain unchanged.

“Metro Rail Policy, 2017 makes private sector participation mandatory, which is a big change. This change will be a catalyst for creating the right models to attract investment from the private players. This also helps the government in reducing their outlay,” said Rajaji Meshram, Director, Infrastructure, KPMG India.

For example, recently Delhi Metro received bids for rolling stock of 25 trains on a lease basis from manufacturers. Similarly, Kochi Metro wants a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model for ticketing with the participation of banks and financial institutions to invest in an automated fare collection system.

Secondly, a change in the Metro Rail Policy 2017 approved in August states that cities with a population of 20 lakh or more should go for a metro rail system or else look for other alternatives.

The need for a new policy came up after PPP in metro rail projects faced legal tangles such as the ones with Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Ltd and Mumbai Metro One Private Ltd.

“There’s adequate allocations done for different works planned for the next fiscal. Moreover, there are plenty of metro lines scheduled for commissioning in 2018-19, which would obviously need lesser funds towards the fag end of construction, thereby leading to lesser outlay in the Budget,” said an industry insider.

During 2018-19, 190 km of metro rail networks are proposed to be commissioned in Delhi (114 km), Chennai (15.

50 km), Bengaluru (12.80 km), Ahmedabad (6.30 km), Nagpur (11.70 km) and Noida-Greater Noida (29.70 km).

The Budget has made allocations for metro rail in Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Mumbai, Kochi and Lucknow; a total of 342 km, some of which are scheduled for completion.

As per the allocations, in the next fiscal, additional corridors under Phase-III of Delhi Metro are slated for completion. For Chennai Metro elevated viaduct, station and depot are slated for completion, while the second phase of civil works will commence for all four extensions of Bengaluru Metro.

In Ahmedabad, the test track will be commissioned in 2018-19 from the budgetary allocation. With the monetary assistance from the Budget, Nagpur Metro will complete construction of 2,500 piers, 400 girders, three station buildings, a depot, viaduct construction, testing and commissioning of rolling stock.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation will continue with its civil construction work of its underground line and will commence track work, power supply-overhead equipment systems, rolling stock, signalling-telecommunications and other system works. Similarly, Lucknow Metro will complete its underground line and Pune Metro will go ahead with the civil works.

Delhi Metro | DMRC deploys Ex-servicemen to guard some metro stations

Aradhana Patel
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Delhi Metro | DMRC deploys Ex-servicemen to guard some metro stations

New Delhi: The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) deployed nearly 200 Ex-serviceman to watch the security and crowd management at various metro stations of Airport Express Line and the Kashmere Gate to Rajiv Chowk stretch of Delhi Metro’s Yellow Line, one of the busiest sections of the metro network.

DMRC has deployed ex-defense personnel for not only better crowd management and discipline at stations, but also to be on the lookout for suspicious commuters and to prevent suicide attempts.

“Under customer facilitation services, these ex-servicemen provide services at station platforms, automatic fare collection (AFC) gates, circulating areas of station and other locations in and around the station premises, including station access points, galleries, ticketing areas, staircases, escalators etc. Under watch and ward services, they guard the service buildings (ancillary building, DG room, chiller plant, cooling tower), theft prone areas, etc. “A total of 183 personnel have been engaged at these five stations ” said a DMRC spokesperson.

According to DMRC officials, the ex-servicemen are trained to be customer oriented while dealing with commuters and general public. The work profile of the ex-servicemen include overall crowd management, ensuring proper queuing of passengers on the platforms, assistance to differently-able passengers, guiding passengers on their queries related to journey and keeping entry and exits free from encroachment by vendors, vehicles, beggars, etc.

The Army Welfare Placement Organization, a registered society, is facilitating the services of these ex-servicemen to DMRC.

Bangalore Metro | BMRC suffers huge loss due to stolen tokens by commuters

Mamta Shah
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Bangalore Metro | BMRC suffers huge loss due to stolen tokens by commuters

Bengaluru: The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) is suffering from a loss of Rs 35 lakh due to missing tokens. As per the information revealed via Right to Information, from the starting day of the services to January 1, 2018 the BMRC has witnessed 1.78 lakh cases of stolen tokens causing a loss of Rs 35 lakh to the Company.

To recover the losses, the Metro authorities initially collected a penalty of Rs 50 which was later hiked to Rs 200 in case of loss of token during the journey. So far the authorities have collected Rs 8.62 lakh as penalty from 10,739 passengers who lost tokens during the their journey.

According to the BMRC officials, so far 1,67,320 tokens continue to remain missing. It means that the passengers took extra tokens with them.

Some passengers buy extra tokens. They use one token to get the entry and travel while taking the extra ones with them. Smart card users also purchase tokens.

Loss of tokens in last 6 months:

Period: June 1, 2017 – January 1, 2018
Loss of tokens: 75,096
Loss of amount: Rs. 15,01,920

BMRC bought 1.50 lakh tokens in 2017 at a rate of Rs 18.30 per token and spent a total of Rs. 27.45 lakh.

Metro officials say there has been a significant increase in the sale of travel smart cards since the beginning of the Metro services but majority of the commuters still prefer tokens.

Mini Bullet Train | Bihar Govt. plans to run Mini Bullet Train between Patna and Bodh-Gaya

Mamta Shah
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Mini Bullet Train | Bihar Govt. plans to run Mini Bullet Train between Patna and Bodh-Gaya

Patna: The Bihar government has prepared a blueprint to run high-speed train between Patna and Bodh-Gaya, one of the biggest Buddhist pilgrimage sites in the world. The 100 km route between Patna and Bodh-Gaya will pass through Rajgir and Nalanda, CM Nitish Kumar’s Assembly constituency.

Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar will embark on his 4-days visit to Japan on February 18 during which he is likely to sign a deal for a mini-bullet train project.

Sources said that the entire route will be underground. A high-level delegation of Bihar government will also accompany Nitish on the crucial Japan tour to finalise the road map for the project.

Observers believe that Nitish, who is facing relentless attacks from Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) ever since he walked out of the Grand Alliance or Mahagathbandhan last year, will use the high-speed train project as his major achievement in the next Assembly election in the state.

Apart from the ambitious project, the Bihar government is also aiming to finalise record number of deals with Japan which will bring huge investments in the state from the foreign country, reports said.

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