Trial Runs on Bangalore Metro’s Underground Section Finally Begin

With track-work & 3rd rail electrification works finally completed on the 4.8 km eastbound tunnel of Bangalore metro’s Purple line between Cubbon Park and Magadi Road, proper trial runs on both the tracks have finally begun!

Vasanth Rao – the Bangalore Metro Rail Corp Ltd’s General Manager for Finance announced the following through his Twitter handle:

E-W Underground train testing achieved 60kms speed. Incrementally will achieve maximum 80 kms in the next 4-5 days.

— Vasanth Rao (@uavasanthrao) November 11, 2015

In an interview to the Deccan Chronicle, he mentioned the following:

The rail has to burn and get synchronised and 60 kmph is a very critical speed. Every ten kilometers we are increasing the speed limit. By Thursday, it is expected to touch 70 kmph.

Trial runs being flagged off on the underground section of Bangalore Metro’s Purple line – Photo Copyright: Deccan Chronicle

In another tweet, Vasanth Rao mentioned that the Managing Director of BMRCL is pushing for this section to start functioning from mid-January. While that seems a little too far fetched given the time it takes for testing to take place along with mandatory safety inspection by the CMRS, I’d be more than glad to be proven wrong!

As a reminder, tunneling on this section (shown below) connecting Cubbon Park station – Vidhana Soudha –  M Viveshvaraya – Kempegowda (Majestic) and City railway stations was completed in March 2014, so it was about time that trial runs began.

Map showing the locations of the underground stations on the Purple line

For more updates on the Bangalore Metro, check out the Bangalore section of the TMRG!

– TMRG