2 more Chinese rakes come to help Purple, Orange lines
Kolkata: After Dalian,
Kolkata Metro
now boasts of Zhuzhou rakes. Six years after the city got its first foreign rake from CNR Dalian Locomotive & Rolling Stock Co, another Chinese manufacturer has forayed into Kolkata Metro with arrival of two rakes from China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) Zhuzhou Locomotive Company.
Unlike Dalian rakes, which have been shipped since March 2019 from the Chinese manufacturer's own stable to Kolkata Port, the Zhuzhou rakes are assembled at the Indian Railway-owned Integral Coach Factory, Perambur near Chennai.
Six more such state-of-the-art rakes with propulsion systems manufactured in China will arrive next year to expand and modernise city's Metro network.
"The Zhuzhou rakes' propulsion system is from China.
The rakes are being assembled in ICF," a senior Metro Railway official told TOI. The propulsion system in a modern metro rake is an energy-efficient, three-phase drive system with Variable Voltage Variable Frequency (VVVF) control. The devices can store the braking energy and reuse it in the acceleration phases.
Metro Railway placed orders for eight rakes from Zhuzhou. The two that have arrived will be tested as prototypes first (undergoing oscillation and other safety examinations) before being inducted into Metro's fleet.
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"The rakes will be commissioned for the Purple and Orange lines," the Metro official said.
The city's Metro line, spanning 61 km across Blue (North-South), Green (East-West Metro), Purple, and Orange lines, is reeling under a rake shortage. The Purple and Orange lines only have two and three rakes each. These are actually old Medha rakes, upgraded to automatic communication-based train control signalling. One of the two rakes developed a serious snag, forcing Metro to reduce services on June 2 and 3.
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