Ahmedabad:

MEGA Co. Ltd., the implementing agency for Ahmedabad Metro Rail Project, on Thursday, said it has awarded the Rs 1,025-crore contract for manufacturing 96 Metro coaches to the South Korean rolling stock manufacturer, M/S Hyundai Rotem. Hyundai Rotem will supply 32 three-car train-sets for Ahmedabad Metro’s 39.259 km Phase-I project. The trains will be manufactured at their Changwon plant and deliveries are expected by next year.Each coach will have space for wheelchair users, four CCTV cameras for passenger safety, fire detectors, LED route guide indicators and a LCD passenger information display system.

This is will be a major boost to the project as rolling stock is an important component of any Metro rail system, according to an official release.

The Gujarat High Court had, last week, dismissed the plea of M/S CRRC, China, one of the four bidders for the contract, challenging its disqualification by MEGA.

Ahmedabad’s new 2.90 metre-wide trains will have a maximum speed of 80 kmph, carrying capacity for 782 passengers and will be capable of running “driverless” on unattended train operations (UTO) mode like the Delhi Metro’s new RS-10 rolling stock.

The Metro-Link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA) had invited bids for the system’s rolling stock in January 2016 and received bids from four firms — Alstom, Bombardier, CRRC and Hyundai Rotem. Three of these were found to be substantially meeting the requirement of eligibility criteria. The fourth bidder, CRRC was adjudged ineligible as it was not fulfilling the technical and financial eligibility criterion requirement.

DeshGujarat