Overhead equipment (OHE) work has commenced between Little Mount and Alandur on the Airport-Washermanpet line of the Chennai metro rail project.

In 2011, Siemens AG, Germany and Siemens Ltd India consortium bagged ₹305-crore contract to install power supply and OHE for the ₹14,500 crore metro rail project.

OHE work has been completed on the entire stretch between Koyambedu and Alandur, said sources in Chennai Metro Rail Ltd.

So far, 108 masts and 47 cantilever assemblies have been erected on the 23.1 km Airport-Washermanpet line, which passes through Broadway, Central Station, Gemini, Saidapet and Guindy.

Ten days ago, the Commissioner for Metro Railway Safety SK Mittal completed the second part of his inspection of stations tracks and equipment. He inspected Koyambedu, CMBT, Arumbakkam, Vadapalani and Ashok Nagar stations and that of viaducts, electrical works, inspected escalators, lifts, station control room and registers maintained. He also interacted with station controller and verified on essential equipment, sources said.

Inspection of signalling equipment room, telecom equipment room transformer room, UPS emergency lighting system was also conducted.

The track inspection included turnout, curves, point machine, track circuit inspection/test, track circuit test gauge, levels, walkway height and OHE measurements, the sources said.

The safety inspection is required for starting commercial operations. Mittal will send his clearance to the Railway Ministry, which in turn will pass it on to the Government of India for final clearance. This process will take a few weeks, sources said.

The CMRL, a public sector company implementing the project, started trial runs of a 10-km stretch of elevated section between Koyambedu and Alandur from last year.

According to the source, 22 sets of trains have been supplied by Alstom. These trains were manufactured at the company’s facility in Sri City in Tada, Andhra Pradesh.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW