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Jaipur Metro|JMRC invites AMT Inc for Phase-II Metro Rail construction

Narendra Shah
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Jaipur Metro|JMRC invites AMT Inc for Phase-II Metro Rail construction

Jaipur: A four-member delegation from American Maglev Technology (AMT) has been invited by Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation (JMRC) to see the presentation and invest in the Phase-II Metro Rail project under public private partnership (PPP) model after receiving no response from other foreign countries.

JMRC project director, Ashwani Saxena, said, “The meeting with the delegation will also be attended by Ashok Jain, Additional Chief Secretary, UDH, and N.C.Goel, Chairman and Managing Director, JMRC. We are hopeful to receive a positive response from the American company.”

A senior official said the estimate cost for Phase-II is Rs 10,000 crore. It has been proposed that the state government will provide 40% as viability gap funding to the awarded company. The remaining amount, which is 60%, will be borne by the state government and the company.

Also, the operation and maintenance of Phase-I (B) will only be handed over after the firm completes phase II. JMRC, till date, has approached six foreign companies and negotiations are underway. An official said, “Recently, a technical team of Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Malaysia was in the city for three days to learn the feasibility of the project. Earlier, a Malaysian delegation led by secretary general, Ministry of Works called Goel in June to discuss the possibilities of partnership.”

After detailed deliberations, it was agreed that China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) will prepare the proposal for taking the project under PPP model and will submit it to JMRC. Similarly, Korea Rail Network Authority (KRNA) expressed strong interest in executing phase II vide their letter dates July 24, 2015. “As per the request from embassy of Republic of Korea, a meeting was held between Korean delegation led by assistant minister, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure & Transport, and JMRC officials in July. To take this forward the delegation will visit Jaipur.” said an official.

In November, a three-member team of the Industrial Enterprise, Singapore, which gave nod to various international investments, visited Jaipur. JMRC officials claimed that as there are many similarities between the second phase of Jaipur Metro and Singapore Metro, the PPP will be a successful model.

AMT, Inc. is a technology developer focused on innovating and commercializing novel intellectual property, chiefly focused on magnetics. The management team combines for more than thirty years of experience and US $10 billion in completed projects.

Lucknow Metro|UP tells PM, Lucknow Metro rail project on course

Narendra Shah
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Lucknow Metro|UP tells PM, Lucknow Metro rail project on course

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday assured the Centre the work on the first phase of the Lucknow metro project was on course and would be completed on schedule. During the monthly interaction between prime minister Narendra Modi and chief secretaries of various states through PRAGATI — the ICT-based, multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation, the PM reviewed the progress of development of solar energy parks in 17 States across the country.

Responding to a specific request from chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, the PM also reviewed the Lucknow Metro Rail Project (Phase 1A), and said most clearances needed for the project had already been accorded after the project was flagged for review under PRAGATI.

During an assessment of the progress of implementation of National Food Security Act, 2013 and Aadhar card enrolment, chief secretary Alok Ranjan informed the PM the UP government aims to complete 90% aadhar enrolment by March 2016. He also said the state government has decided to implement the National Food Security Act in three phases; for 24 districts in the first phase, 26 in the second and 25 districts in the last phase. A deadline for implementation has, however, not been declared.

Hyderabad Metro|Efforts on to expedite Hyderabad Metro Rail work

Narendra Shah
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Hyderabad Metro|Efforts on to expedite Hyderabad Metro Rail work

Hyderabad: The Special Task Force (STF) meeting on Hyderabad Metro Rail project held on Tuesday discussed ways to expedite the project clearing hurdles in its path of implementation.

The meeting, chaired by Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma has trained its attention on properties held up in court litigations and delaying the implementation of the metro project.

While reviewing the status of metro pillars and viaduct works, the Chief Secretary wanted L&T Hyderabad Metro Rail officials to adhere to the targeted dates of completion without allowing any time lags.

The elevated metro rail project, spanning three corridors and a stretch of 72-km, is now under construction. However, its progress is held up in a couple of segments as the State Government wants its alignment changed.

A detailed report has been submitted by the concessionaire L&T and the final nod from the State is awaited. The right of way issues are still being resolved.

Vijayawada Metro|Andhra Govt. released Rs.10cr to Amaravati Metro Rail Corporation

Narendra Shah
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Vijayawada Metro|Andhra Govt. released Rs.10cr to Amaravati Metro Rail Corporation

Hyderabad: The State government has initiated measures to launch works on the Vijayawada metro project through Amaravati Metro Rail Corporation, body formed on the lines of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, for managing the proposed metro rail network in the new capital region.

The government released Rs. 10 crore as token amount to enable the project consultant DMRC to commence preparatory action on the new corporation. The amount is being credited into account of DMRC in Oriental Bank of Commerce, New Delhi.

Delhi Metro|DMRC and India Habitat Centre unveil Gandhi in the Metro exhibition

Narendra Shah
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New Delhi: The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), in association with the India Habitat Centre (IHC), today unveiled a special exhibition of photographs at the Jorbagh Metro station titled ‘Gandhi in the Metro’ to pay a tribute to Gandhi’s life and times. These photographs on display were clicked by renowned photographer Late Kulwant Roy in the 1930s and 1940s. Another photographer Aditya Arya discovered the negatives and preserved them.

A mix of big size panels and  display boards have been used to exhibit the photographs at the station which display historical collection of pictures capturing historic political meetings, iconic portraits and glimpses into the lives of famous freedom fighter and leaders of India.

The Exhibition at the station is curated by renowned photographer Aditya Arya and Indivar Kamtekar.

“If He was alive and in Delhi today, Gandhi would have gone underground. Not politically, of course, but to travel by the trains of our Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. He travelled by the train in the third class to be like the common people. He appreciated efficiency and disliked fuss. He loved punctuality. He loved cleanliness. We like to imagine that our trains and stations would have impressed him”, said the Curators of this Exhibition.

The Delhi Metro today represents one of the shining example for its cleanliness, efficiency and timeliness- something which Gandhiji always practiced and preached all throughout his life.

Every day the passengers/public visiting the Exhibition will be distributed 1000 free postcard pictures which are on display at the station.

A separate stall for this purpose has been set up at the venue itself which will remain open from 8 AM to 8 PM on all days for next two months. Besides this, visitors can also participate in an interesting contest and win a book titled ‘History in the Making-The Visual Archives of Kulwant Roy’ worth Rs. 4,999/-. The book is compiled by Aditya Arya and Indivar Kamtekar, the curators of the Exhibition at the Jor Bagh Metro station.

DMRC has always endeavored to promote art and culture through display panels and exhibits at its premises. In the past, Delhi Metro has tied up with independent artists, the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), Ministry of Textiles, Shaitya Akademy, National Book Trust etc.

Mumbai Metro|Paytm ties up with Mumbai Metro Smart Card online recharge

Narendra Shah
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Mumbai Metro|Paytm ties up with Mumbai Metro Smart Card online recharge

Mumbai: Paytm users can now book metro tickets through their wallet. Alibaba-backed Paytm, has tied up with Mumbai Metro for online recharges and ticketing, according to sources.

Paytm, which launched a bus ticket marketplace, is betting big on the domestic and intra-city travel segment. It plans to tie-up with Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai metro soon. Paytm did not wish to comment on the development.

According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India, India’s online travel market was estimated to be worth over $8 billion in 2014 and likely to register an exponential growth in the current year. Also, the country is witnessing a tremendous growth in the middle class with a growing disposable income.

Noida-headquartered Paytm, founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, wants to be a one-stop destination for consumers to fulfil their daily needs. It is entering new categories every month to grow its gross merchandise value to $3-4 billion (₹19,000-25,500 crore) by the end of 2015, according to the company.

As the marketplace expands to encompass hotels and travel agents, service providers will be able to put up their inventory with a do-it-yourself platform provided by Paytm.

Paytm, part of One97 Communications, recently said that its wallet is now accepted by over 80,000 merchants, and it plans to reach the 10-million merchants mark by the end of next year.

Kolkata East West Metro|Bid saves Metro blushes

Narendra Shah
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Kolkata East West Metro|Bid saves Metro blushes

Kolkata: An Indian public sector company has emerged as the lone bidder in “international competitive bidding” to find a replacement for the Spanish firm that was to build rakes for the East-West Metro.

“No international company has shown interest in the project. When the tender was opened, the only offer was from BEML,” a senior railway official told Metro.

Bangalore-based BEML Ltd, formerly Bharat Earth Movers Ltd, has manufactured rakes for the Delhi, Bangalore and Jaipur metros.

The technical bid for the contract to build 14 rakes, each with six coaches, was opened in end-August.

Officials of the railways and two train coach manufacturing companies said the project’s history of hurdles – it is still mired in land tangles – was possibly one of the reasons why international firms didn’t show any interest.

The contract for “design, manufacture, supply, testing, commissioning and integration of passenger rolling stock (electrical multiple units) and training of personnel” was put out to tender after Madrid-based Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) opted out of the project because of its cost-escalation claim being rejected.

The contract, originally worth around Rs 770 crore, has yet to be revalued.

In 2009, three global companies, including CAF and the French multinational Alstom, had bid for the contract. CAF was the third company associated with the East-West Metro to make a cost-escalation claim on grounds of procedural hassles such as the government refusing to relocate settlers from construction sites.

Construction companies Gammon and Transtonnelstroy Afcons had filed similar cost-escalation claims. Gammon withdrew from a 365-metre stretch in Salt Lake’s Duttabad because of the delay in shifting settlers. Afcons moved Calcutta High Court stating that it required land to start work.

“The East-West Metro project has been delayed by land-related problems for so long that we are apprehensive (of its future). Till date, there has not been much movement to suggest that these problems have been solved,” said an official of a multinational rail transport infrastructure company.

He said any company would be reluctant to become associated with a project with an uncertain future.

The East-West Metro project has missed two deadlines already. The revised deadline for the first phase of the project, June 2018, has since been advanced to December 2017.

The second phase of the project – Sealdah to Howrah Maidan – has been stalled for more than two years and there is no indication yet of when work will begin. The good news is that the state government and the railways are working out a route realignment plan.

A senior official in a Metro coach manufacturing company said the order for 14 rakes may have been “too small” for a big company to take the risk of further delay and cost escalation. “The Delhi Metro contract was for 2,100 coaches. Compared to that, the East-West Metro needs only 84 coaches,” he pointed out.

The East-West Metro would at first require 14 air-conditioned rakes with a combined capacity of 2,136 passengers. “We can manufacture the required number of trains within 18 months of the work order being issued,” said Aniruddh Kumar, managing director (rail and metro business) at BEML.

He said the company had built around 1,250 coaches for the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, some on its own and the rest in collaboration with a foreign company. BEML has also manufactured 150 coaches for the Bangalore Metro and another 40 for the Jaipur Metro.

Sources said the KMRC had informed its central funding agency about the tender attracting a lone bidder. The Japan International Cooperation Agency is to provide Rs 2,253 crore out of the budgeted Rs 4,875 crore for the project.

The other stalled Metro projects in Calcutta have struggled to retain or attract contractors. Larsen & Toubro withdrew from the Airport-Barasat Metro in 2012 because of the state government’s failure to relocate settlers. Metro Railway hasn’t floated a tender for the project in three years.

In 2014, the Noapara-Dakshineswar Metro got a new contractor whom the railways must pay Rs 130 crore extra because nobody else would touch a project being held hostage by illegal settlements.

Simplex Infrastructures Ltd bid for and bagged the contract in October 2014 on its own terms after the railways decided to get work started in sections where encroachment isn’t a problem.

Noida Metro|Two new metro projects may help ease commuting in Noida, Gr. Noida

Narendra Shah
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Noida Metro|Two new metro projects may help ease commuting in Noida, Gr. Noida

Noida: Two new projects worth Rs 6,710 crore are set to improve Metro connectivity in Noida and Greater Noida.

The New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (Noida) has approved the detailed project reports (DPR) for the two routes. The first line will be 11-km long and run between Okhla bird sanctuary and Sector 142 parallel to the Noida Expressway. The second line will cover a distance of 15 km from Sector 71 to Greater Noida’s Knowledge Park-V.

The DPRs, prepared by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), were approved by the authority on Friday during a board meeting.

“Now we will study the two DPRs and send the same for UP government’s approval. Work on the two routes is expected to begin next year. The routes are part of our mega project in which we want to build a Metro loop to spread connectivity around Noida and Greater Noida,” said Rama Raman, chief executive officer of Noida and Greater Noida.

The 15-km link project will have a total of nine metro stations. The DPR envisages to put to put Noida’s sector 71, 72, 122, 119, 118, 67, 63 and 66 among others areas on Metro track. The 11-km link will have 7 stations help sector 94, 95, 125, 126, 136, 137, 93, 98, 142, 143 and 168 among others get connected.

The Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) has also decided to explore the feasibility of a tram rail project on a 15-km stretch between Botanical Garden Metro station and sector 144.

The Noida and Greater Noida authorities on Friday finalised a comprehensive mobility plan (CMP) for the two cities to address public transport woes. Last year, the authorities had approved a proposal to prepare a CMP and now the detailed mobility project has been approved to be implemented further.

Officials said they have finalised 27 routes 390 buses to resolve commuting woes.

Greater Noida Metro|DMRC invites tender for supply of 78 new coaches

Narendra Shah
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Greater Noida Metro|DMRC invites tender for supply of 78 new coaches

Noida: Nearly five months after the DMRC initiated tenders for 78 coaches to come at a cost of Rs 700 crore for the Noida-Greater Noida track, a revised tender has been floated.

This time, DMRC has invited bids for 76 coaches at an additional cost of Rs 100 crore, which officials say includes taxes. The selected agency will be responsible for the design, manufacture and commissioning of the coaches. The procurement of these cars will be funded by the Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC).

According to DMRC officials, the earlier tenders have been re-initiated as not a single bidder had applied for the earlier tender, which was floated in April this year and was to be finalized in June. With the re-initiation, the agency is now likely to be finalized by October 20, 2015.

The selected agency will be responsible for supplying the coaches within 114 weeks, DMRC officials said on Monday. The trains will support four coaches each as against the earlier plan of three-coach trains. The total number of trains that will run between Noida and Greater Noida would be 19. “Trains will be run at a frequency of every five minutes to address the peak hours, peak directional traffic load,” said a DMRC official.

With each coach having a capacity of 300 passengers, every train will be able to accommodate 1,200 passengers and 15,000 commuters will be ferried at 5-minute frequency. Officials said the number of cars have been increased, following DMRC experience and the study of traffic patterns.

“With development and habitation expected to increase in time to come, we can also increase the rolling stock to six-car trains. The longer trains will cater to the expected traffic along the route between the twin cities,” the official said.

The design for the Metro coaches has already been approved by Rama Raman, the chairperson of the three authorities of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway in February this year. The coaches would be state-of-the art and laced with modern technology. A model of the coach has been readied and approved, said NMRC officials.

Once the track is in place, it would not only provide a fast link between the two townships but also bring these places closer to the national capital. The track is expected to be commissioned by June 2017.

Delhi Metro|Getting into a coach is like a battle war

Narendra Shah
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Delhi Metro|Getting into a coach is like a battle war

New Delhi: Ms. Mehak Makhija, a business analyst, getting into even the ladies’ coach of the Delhi metro is like a battle. “It hardly makes any difference. Women also elbow you if you board the special coach during peak time,” she said, hoping if only her office timings were shifted to non-peak hours.

Like Ms Makhija, thousands of others have felt the push and have squealed at their foot being stepped by others. Despite the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s (DMRC) multiple attempts to ease the crowd, little seems to have changed. Even after two stations – Mandi House and Kirti Nagar – being introduced as interchange point on the Dwarka Sector 21-Noida/Vaishali line, the Rajiv Chowk station continues to be the most used throughout the metro network.

As per latest data, the average daily footfall of this station is almost 4.52 lakh which is followed by Kashmere Gate interchange station with 3.24 lakh people using it. “The Rajiv Chowk station gives people seamless access to Central Delhi and major commercial hub, Connaught Place, at the same time also serves as an inter-change for boarding the Jahangirpuri-Huda City Centre line. So the rush is expected. To decongest this station we have opened the viewer’s gallery now,” said a DMRC official.

The biggest fear for Prabhu Sachdev, an IT professional, is when speaker in the train creaks “there will be a short delay in this service”. “That moment is a nightmare. I was trapped in the train once when the overhead wire had snapped. I missed my office that day. We were walking on the tracks to reach the station,” he said.

With every year, DMRC witnesses an average increase of at least 16 per cent of ridership. In fact, over the past six months, the Metro network has seen a significant increase in ridership. From around 23 lakh in late 2014, it has averaged out to over 24 lakh in the first half of 2015.

“On some days, the ridership even touches the 27-lakh mark. Opening Phase III with 18 new inter-change stations will be the real game-changer in the mass transit network,” said the official.

Last month, the corporation had increased the frequency of trains on weekdays during off peak hours (from 11 am to 4:30 pm) by inducting 20 more trains into service. Yet, the rush still remains.

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