Construction of a second tram line in the French city of Orléans is to go ahead following signature of a Declaration of Public Utility on January 10. Running east-west, the 11·8 km route with 25 stops will link St Jean de Braye with St Jean de la Ruelle and La Chapelle St Mesmin. Completion of the €297·7m project is envisaged in 2011, when a fleet of 21 Alstom Citadis 302 trams will enter service. Interchange with Line 1 will be provided at Place de Gaulle.
Sumitomo Corp and Hyundai Rotem have been awarded a ¥16·5bn contract to supply 76 metre-gauge EMU cars to Tunisia in 2009-10. They will replace DMUs on the 23 km Tunis - Borj Cedria suburban line which is currently being electrified at 25 kV AC (RG 4.07 p209).
The first preparatory work on Ho Chi Minh City's proposed metro was due to begin in January, the Urban Railway Planning Unit announced on January 3. The 19·7 km Line 1 would run from Ben Thanh Market to Long Binh, and revenue services are expected to start in 2014.
DLF, an Indian property development firm, is planning a 'low-capacity feeder metro' for its cyber city development in Gurgaon. The proposed 3·7 km line would run from a terminus at Mall of India to an interchange with the Delhi Metro at Sikanderpur. Work on the line, which would be the first private metro in India, is projected to start in March this year and could be complete by April 2010.
