2nd Refurbished Train & Noapara’s 3rd Platform Inaugurated in Kolkata
On this past Friday, India’s Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu remotely flagged off Kolkata Metro’s 2nd refurbished train from its old non-AC fleet and also inaugurated a 3rd platform at the Noapara Station in northern Kolkata.
The train was built roughly 25 years ago by the now-defunct NGEF Ltd. in Bangalore ICF in Chennai and was refurbished by a team from the Titagarh Wagons Ltd. at the Noapara Workshop at a cost of Rs 3.6 crores. The train still doesn’t have an AC system, but includes other features such as a real-time route map board inside every coach for passengers to know which station they are approaching. The first train rejoined the fleet in June 2016 and the remaining 5 are expected to arrive and rejoin in the next 12 months.
The 3rd platform at Noapara Station (northern terminal of Line-1) will help to increase the frequency of trains into & out of Noapara, and later serve trains on the upcoming Noapara – Dakshineshwar & Barrackpore lines. As per Kolkata Metro’s CPRO:
So far, there was only one platform at Noapara. And if this platform was blocked for some reason, then Up trains would have to wait at Dum Dum. With the new platform, even if one platform is blocked, trains can continue to run smoothly. Now, we run 100 services between Noapara and Dumdum at 15-20 minute intervals. Services will be more frequent now. We get nearly 6,000 passengers from Noapara every day. This figure will go up when the number of services increase. Our daily earnings of Rs 65,000 (on an average) will also increase.
2nd Refurbished Train
Source: Kolkata Metro
Source: Adri Roy Chaudhary
Photo Copyright: Arko Banerjee
Photo Copyright: Arko Banerjee
Photo Copyright: Kausik Chandra
Rehash of the train’s new features from an earlier post:
- Old passenger seats and backrests replaced with new ones of polycarbonate material.
- Transparent glass partition at both ends of the seats similar to the ones in the AC coaches.
- Audio visual passenger information system along with a passenger route indication board provided.
- Old ventilation fans replaced with low-noise fans that will make the coaches more airy and less humid.
- LED tube lights provided in place of fluorescent tube lights inside the coaches.
- All interior panels replaced with anodized aluminium panels similar to AC rakes.
- Old windows replaced with new modified ones that are easy to handle and will not get stuck.
- Old vestibules replaced by new ones that have transparent sheet to allow daylight in pass through.
- All existing handrails replaced with new ones.
- Old aluminium chequered flooring replaced by fire resistance PVC flooring similar to AC coaches.
- Fresh coat of paint on the exterior that has giving it a brand new look.
Noapara’s 3rd Platform
Photo Copyright: Kausik Chandra
Photo Copyright: Kausik Chandra
Photo Copyright: Kausik Chandra
For more updates, check out the Kolkata section of The Metro Rail Guy!
– TMRG
Good job. The trains were not built by NGEF. They supplied the propulsion electrics and the trains were built at ICF, Chennai. Nine trains were also built with BHEL electrics before that. Thirteen new trains with BHEL electrics incl. air-conditioning are also in service since 2014.
Lots of sources call them “NGEF Rakes”, but you’re absolutely right – they were indeed built by ICF. I’ve updated the post 🙂
When all other metro system in India are getting fully air conditioned trains, kolkata is getting this refurbished ones..
Just one of the many drawbacks of the Indian Railways owning Kolkata Metro.
Very bad quality
Thrid class ICF train looks like a garbage even patna having coaches from bombardier or BEML and we Kolkata people getting rakes from ICF who are specialists making goodstrain.