INDIA: State project promoter Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corp has awarded Bombardier Transport India a €245m contract to supply 67 three-car trainsets as well as Cityflo 650 communications-based train control for the metro projects in the cities of Kanpur and Agra.
Announcing the contract on July 3, UPMRC said four international bids had been submitted on February 18. Following a ‘a very detailed’ evaluation of the technical offers China’s CRRC was disqualified. The financial offers of the three remaining bidders were then reviewed, with Bombardier’s bid coming in lower than offers from Alstom and a joint venture of BEML and Hitachi.
The ‘state of the art’ stainless steel trains from Bombardier’s Movia family are to be designed at the suppler’s centre in Hyderabad and manufactured at its plant at Savli in Gujrat, which UPMRC said would be ‘another feather in the Make in India cap’. There is an option for a further 51 cars.
The two metros will have closely-spaced stations about 1 km apart, with the trains having a design speed of 90 km/h and operating speed of 80 km/h. Delivery of the first set is planned within 65 weeks.
Kanpur will have two lines, running 23·8 km from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur to Naubasta with 14 elevated and eight underground stations, and 8·6 km from Agriculture University to Barra-8 with four elevated and four underground stations.
Agra’s Line 1 will run for 14·0 km from Sikandra to Taj East Gate with six elevated and seven underground stations serving destinations including the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Raja Ki Mandi station and the medical college. Line 2 would run 15·4 km from Agra Cantt to Kalindi Vihar, with 14 elevated stations.
By combining the rolling stock and signalling contracts UPMRC hopes to replicate the rapid timescale of Lucknow metro Phase 1A, which it said was the ‘fastest metro project implementation in the country’ having taken less than 4½ years and with the first trainset delivered in 64 weeks.
Separately, UPMRC has awarded a joint venture of Italferr of Italy and Typsa of Spain a €43·6m contract to provide project management services for the two metro schemes.
Civil works on for the Kanpur metro are now back ‘in full swing’ after the coronavirus lockdown, UPMRC said, and the award of the rolling stock and signalling contract would ‘not only boost the economy but will also bring the people of Kanpur and Agra closer to their dream of having their own metro’.
