Technical teams to run series of trial runs and tests before it gets operational

Trial runs for the first phase of the Hyderabad Metro Rail project – Corridor II or the Green Corridor from Jubilee Bus Station to Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS, Imliban) commenced with top officials, including HMR Managing Director N.V.S. Reddy, L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH) MD and CEO K.V.B. Reddy travelling on the first trip on Monday.

Accompanied by a team of technical experts and engineers, the top officials observed the various technical and safety parameters and performance of the train during the trial run. With a length of 11 km, the corridor has nine stations — JBS-Parade Grounds, Secunderabad West, Gandhi Hospital, Musheerabad, RTC X Road, Chikkadpally, Narayanaguda, Sultan Bazar and MGBS.

“It would take 16 minutes to cover this corridor from JBS to MGBS, as against 45 minutes by road,” said Mr. N.V.S. Reddy.

In the next few weeks, engineers would be checking for many technical specifications, performance criteria and safety standards under the different categories like signalling tests and safe train separation tests, brake test by signalling and train control system, overhead electric rolling stock or metro coaches, passenger information announcements and display tests, dummy passenger evacuation tests and degraded mode operation tests, among others, he explained.

Data and other inputs in these tests would be sent online to Thales for signalling and train control software to be fine tuned for safe operation of metro trains in automatic mode with CBTC technology. After receipt of satisfactory performance and safety certification from Thales, Internal Safety Assessor (ISA) M/s.Halcrow and other related Indian and international organisations, the Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) would be invited for final safety clearance of the corridor.

“After CMRS safety certification, the corridor will be thrown open for passenger operations,” he added. Both the MDs complimented the dedicated teams of engineers from L&TMR, HMR and other organisations who worked relentlessly and made the corridor ready for trial runs.

L&TMRHL project director M.P.Naidu, chief operating officer A.K.Saini, HMR chief signalling & telecommunications engineer S.K.Das, chief project manager B.Anand Mohan, SE M.Vishnu Vardhan Reddy, GM (works) B.N.Rajeswar, GM (security) A.Balakrishna and others participated in the trial run and inspection.