Track Laying Work Starts for Kochi Metro

Early morning on August 24, Ircon International Ltd, the company entrusted with laying the tracks for Kochi Metro started placing the first set of rails on the metro’s viaduct. Roughly 30 tonnes of rails were brought in from the metro’s yard located at the Kerala Water Authority’s plot behind the JLN stadium at 11:30 pm on Sunday night. They were loaded onto a trailer truck and transported by road to the viaduct between Mezbaan and TVS junctions. After that, the 18 meter long rails (which each weigh a tonne) were lifted on top of the viaduct in batches of two at a time.

Kochi Metro Rail Preparation – Photo Copyright Kochi Metro FB

Tracks being hoisted onto a trailer – Photo Copyright Kochi Metro Rail

Tracks being hoisted onto a trailer – Photo Copyright Kochi Metro Rail

News video with visuals of the tracks being offloaded at the site:

On Monday afternoon, IRCON started laying the rails in their position. In a couple days, a new crane will be brought in to help weld the rails together to form the metro’s track.

The Kochi Metro requires about 7,000 metric tonnes of head-hardened rails. Around 3,500 tonnes of rails for the project have already been imported from France. The third rail which provides power to the train has also been imported from Germany.

For more updates on Kochi’s Metro, check out the Kochi section of the TMRG!

– TMRG