Chennai Metro Line 4: Alstom to Supply 10 Additional Trains

Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL) on Monday signed a supplementary contract agreement with Alstom Transport India to procure an additional 10 train-sets of 3 coaches for Chennai Metro’s under construction 26.1 km Line-4 (Poonamallee Bypass – Light House)

This contract of 116.1 km Chennai Metro Phase 2‘s Package ARE03A is valued at Rs. 269 crore and comes with a 28 month deadline to manufacture and supply a total of 30 coaches.

CMRL had originally awarded Alstom with a Rs. 946.92 crore contract in July 2022 to supply 26 train-sets of 3 coaches capable of running driverless on the unattended train operations (UTO) mode. That 78 coach contract had an in-built option to procure additional train-sets, if needed, which CMRL decided to exercise.

These coaches will be manufactured in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh and service Poonamallee Bypass – Light House through 28 (18 elevated & 10 underground) stations, and be stabled & maintained at Poonamallee Depot in western Chennai.

The train’s design or color scheme haven’t been released yet.

With this development, Alstom will be supplying a total of 36 trains of 3 coaches (total 108 coaches) to service the entire line, which will now allow CMRL to run high frequency operations.

This is Alstom’s 4th order by CMRL. In the past, they had ordered 42 Alstom Metropolis train-sets (168 coaches) for 45.1 km Phase 1, and then exercised an option to procure an additional 10 train-sets (40 coaches) for the 9.1 km Phase 1 Extension project.

Bidding is still underway for Line 3 and Line 5’s 210 coach rolling stock contract (Package ARE02A) after its tender notice was republished in July 2023. The technical bid opening date was recently revised all the way to February 7, 2024, so we’re easily at least 6 months away from knowing the winner and at least of 24 months away from seeing the first train roll out.

A list of all Chennai Metro Phase 2 tenders (civil, systems) and their status can be viewed here.

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– TMRG