Kochi’s Metro to Start Receiving Alstom Coaches From January 2

As I had hinted earlier this month, new coaches for Kochi’s Metro will start arriving in early January and I now have a date for it! Mark you calendars for January 2 as that’s the date when the first 3 coaches will arrive at the Muttom Depot. This news was conveyed by Elias George who functions as the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd’s Managing Director to news reporters. These coaches were earlier supposed to arrive on December 13, but due to the rains in the Chennai region where Alstom’s plant is located, the delivery had to be delayed.

Designed & built by Alstom, these coaches will travel by road from Alstom’s rolling stock manufacturing plant located at Sri City, Andhra Pradesh. According to the contract, Alstom will deliver 25 train-sets each consisting of 3 cars. The trains will be 2.9m wide & 65m long, and will be able to accommodate up to 975 passengers with 140 of them seated.

The test track at the Muttom Depot (see old satellite imagery) is now ready and other critical works are progressing rapidly under the Delhi Metro Rail Corp’s supervision. The trial runs in February will initially be conducted at the Depot’s test track and then later on the actual metro line from Muttom to Palarivottom (see Kochi metro map).

As a reminder, the first coach’s shell was unveiled at an event organized in March this year:

Kochi Metro – Photo Copyright: Kochi Metro FB

More images of the shell can be viewed here.

Then in September, the Kochi Metro Rail Corp finally unveiled the train’s design:

Kochi Metro’s Rolling Stock design – Image Copyright: Kochi Metro

Fun fact – the LED headlights of Kochi’s metro trains have been inspired by elephant tusks!

Interior view – color scheme 1 – Image Copyright: Kochi Metro

More design renderings of the trains can be viewed here. Looking forward to January 2 now!

For more updates on Kochi’s Metro, check out the Kochi section of the The Metro Rail Guy!

– TMRG