Kolkata: Commuters of the New Garia-Ruby Metro line will get more frequent trains and not at 45-minute gaps as was planned in December.
The Orange line’s truncated Phase I will be opened with signals and not with the one-train-only system. It would allow trains to run at around 10-minute frequencies. The Purple line, too, is being upgraded with signals. So when the Majerhat station is added to the Joka-Taratala stretch soon, commuters will get trains at 10-minute intervals.
Now that the launch of the New Garia-Ruby stretch has been deferred by at least a month, chief commissioner of railway safety (CCRS) Janak Kumar Garg in his meeting with officials of Metro Railway and Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) on Thursday asked the former to submit a detailed report (with video footage) of the trials conducted to test the newly installed electronic interlocking (EI) signals so that the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) could clear the signalling system without a physical inspection.
During his visit to the city on Thursday, the CCRS told Metro Railway and RVNL, which is implementing the 32km New Garia-Airport corridor, to expedite the signalling operations on the truncated stretch.
PM Narendra Modi was supposed to throw open the line on December 24, based on the CRS nod issued in February for the New Garia-Ruby section to run with the one-train-only system even as RVNL was preparing to open the New Garia-Ruby stretch with the basic (EI) signals in place.
Siemens, contracted to install the Rs 656-crore CBTC for the Purple and Orange lines, completed the EI job for the New Garia-Ruby section in November last year. Trials were conducted subsequently. Even as the entire communication-based train control (CBTC) signalling work will take another two years, the stretch can run with basic signalling, for now.
“Now that the line’s commissioning has been deferred by a month or so, the New Garia-Ruby Metro will be launched with EI signals. The Joka-Taratala Metro, where one train goes up and down the tracks and returns to pick up commuters every 45 minutes, is being upgraded with signals so that trains come every 10 minutes or so,” a Railways official said.
The Orange line’s truncated Phase I will be opened with signals and not with the one-train-only system. It would allow trains to run at around 10-minute frequencies. The Purple line, too, is being upgraded with signals. So when the Majerhat station is added to the Joka-Taratala stretch soon, commuters will get trains at 10-minute intervals.
Now that the launch of the New Garia-Ruby stretch has been deferred by at least a month, chief commissioner of railway safety (CCRS) Janak Kumar Garg in his meeting with officials of Metro Railway and Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) on Thursday asked the former to submit a detailed report (with video footage) of the trials conducted to test the newly installed electronic interlocking (EI) signals so that the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) could clear the signalling system without a physical inspection.
During his visit to the city on Thursday, the CCRS told Metro Railway and RVNL, which is implementing the 32km New Garia-Airport corridor, to expedite the signalling operations on the truncated stretch.
PM Narendra Modi was supposed to throw open the line on December 24, based on the CRS nod issued in February for the New Garia-Ruby section to run with the one-train-only system even as RVNL was preparing to open the New Garia-Ruby stretch with the basic (EI) signals in place.
Siemens, contracted to install the Rs 656-crore CBTC for the Purple and Orange lines, completed the EI job for the New Garia-Ruby section in November last year. Trials were conducted subsequently. Even as the entire communication-based train control (CBTC) signalling work will take another two years, the stretch can run with basic signalling, for now.
“Now that the line’s commissioning has been deferred by a month or so, the New Garia-Ruby Metro will be launched with EI signals. The Joka-Taratala Metro, where one train goes up and down the tracks and returns to pick up commuters every 45 minutes, is being upgraded with signals so that trains come every 10 minutes or so,” a Railways official said.