Nagpur Metro’s Aqua Line-2 to Open on Jan 28

An 11 km stretch of Nagpur Metro’s 19.4 km Line-2 (Aqua Line) will be inaugurated for commercial operations remotely by Maharashtra’s Chief Minister on January 28 at 10:15 am. Several Union Ministers will participate in a local celebration at the Subhash Nagar Metro Station.

This first section of Line-2, known as Reach-3, will connect Lokmanya Nagar in eastern Nagpur with Sitabuldi Station, the current northern terminal of Line-1 (Orange Line), in the city centre.

Construction on Reach-3 commenced in December 2016 by Afcons Infrastructure for its 10.387 km viaduct and by ITD Cementation for 10 elevated stations enroute. Trial runs from the Hingna Depot near Lokmanya Nagar to Subhash Nagar commenced in May 2019 and further testing onward to Sitabuldi began in August 2019. The line’s viaduct and 6/10 stations were certified fit, with conditions, for operations by the Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) in September 2019.

The 6 stations to initially open include Lokmanya Nagar, Vasudev Nagar, Subhash Nagar, Institute of Engineers, Jhansi Rani Square and Sitabuldi Interchange. The rest at Bansi Nagar, Rachna Ring Road, Ambazari Lake View and LAD Chowk are expected to open at different times throughout 2020.

Line-2 is equipped with Siemens’ CBTC (communication based train control) signalling system and its Rotem & CRRC Dalian rolling stock fleet is based out of the Hinga Depot.

MahaMetro hasn’t revealed their train operation game-plan, but if the Orange Line’s existing frequency is anything to go by, then trains on this line will be operated at a headway of 30 minutes to cut initial operational losses.

Here are some images of the line shot over the past month via MahaMetro’s FaceBook page –

Promo video with some nice visuals –

केंद्रीय मंत्री श्री @nitin_gadkari जी का ड्रीम प्रोजेक्ट 'नागपुर मेट्रो' ( माझी मेट्रो ) के एक्वा लाइन फेज 1, लोकमान्य नगर से सिताबर्डी (11 km) का लोकार्पण आदरणीय प्रधानमंत्री श्री @narendramodi जी 28 जनवरी को (वीडियो कॉन्फ्रेंसिंग के जरिए) करेंगे। #TransformingNagpur pic.twitter.com/zn9OoOp9vb

— Office Of Nitin Gadkari (@OfficeOfNG) January 26, 2020

Post inauguration, Nagpur’s metro network will become 24 km long and surpass Lucknow’s 22.9 km Line-1 and Kochi’s 23.8 km Line-1 to become the 7th largest system in the country.

For more updates, check out the Nagpur section of The Metro Rail Guy!

– TMRG