Special purpose trailers brought the third lot of three coaches for the Kochi Metro Rail by noon on Wednesday. The coaches, brought from Alstom’s manufacturing unit at Sri City in Andhra Pradesh, took almost nine days to travel the 710 km to reach the city.
While they left the factory on December 13, inclement weather and disruptions brought about by the cyclonic storm Vardah delayed the movement of the coaches.
They would be shifted to the coach depot at Muttom on Thursday morning where they would be integrated. Officials indicated that one more shipment of three coaches was slated to arrive in the beginning of January. By the time the metro rail service got commissioned, presumably in April, 2017, a total of nine trains, each consisting of three coaches, would have arrived, maintained officials.
The Kochi Metro Rail would require 75 coaches in all, meaning 25 trains, to fully operationalise the service between Aluva and Petta in Tripunithura. Each train comprises three coaches, all built at Alstom’s manufacturing unit at Sri City. Two sets of three coaches each had reached Kochi on January 10 and July 8 this year.
