Bharat Rakshak

On the night of December 27, the GYT-TPL JV (a Joint Venture of GYT-China and Tata Projects Limited) launched the first U-shaped girder for the 9.41 km Ghaziabad extension of the Delhi Metro’s Red line! This extension is being executed under contract CC-87 of the 159.327 km Phase III project.

Rohit_K wrote:A nice read: Capital’s Ring Railway is an ‘available resource with immense potential

Yesterday, Alstom delivered coaches for train numbers 30, 31 and 32 as part of the Rs 1,471 crore contract signed between Alstom and Chennai Metro Rail Ltd for 42 train-sets in August 2010. Each of these trains contain 4 cars which were manufactured just 75 km away at Alstom’s Indian plant at Sri City, Andhra Pradesh.

WHO GOT HOW MUCH
*South India Carbonic Gas Industries Limited (SICGIL) received Rs 16.41 crore - the highest compensation - for acquiring 2,400 square metre land (a little more than half an acre) on Mysore Road
*Spandana Rehabilitation Centre received the second highest compensation of Rs 14 crore for acquisition of approximately 1800 square metres of land on the stretch.
*Gopalan Mall received Rs 2.52 lakh for acquisition of just 2 sq metres of land.
*The total compensation paid has touched over Rs 7,000 per square feet of land at some points on the stretch.

WHY THE HIGH CONMPENSATION?
As per the new land acquisition act, the land acquiring government agency has to pay as compensation double the amount of the guidance value. In addition to the land value fixed, they have to also give 12 per cent interest on property value per year. The preliminary notification was issued in the year 2013.

Yesterday afternoon, the Thi-1 TBM deployed by the L&T-SUCG JV made a breakthrough at the Magenta line’s RK Puram mid-shaft! This TBM was launched from the Munirka station in September and traveled roughly 300 meters to reach the mid-shaft which has been constructed exclusively for the line’s up-line tunnel. This event marks the 8th breakthrough to be recorded on the CC-27 project which spans from Shankar Vihar to Hauz Khas.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Monday said that it was “successful” in handling the “expected huge rush” on all its lines following the odd-even scheme of the Delhi government on the first working day of the New Year.

“The Delhi Metro was successful in handling the expected huge rush on all its lines, on the first working Monday of the year,” DMRC said in a statement.

“All necessary measures were already planned in advance and were in place to manage any additional rush of passengers,” it added.
The Delhi government's 15-day odd-even scheme came into force from January 1 in a bid to control pollution in the national capital.
To cater the heavy rush at its stations, the DMRC has planned to run 3,192 total trips to handle the passenger rush by using 198 trains daily to achieve these trips.

After beginning work on the 4.5 km surface/at-grade section of Nagpur Metro’s 19.66 km north-south line in the MIHAN Airport area, work has now begun for constructing the elevated portion on Wardha Road (old highway NH-7) as well! The contract to build the viaduct of a 7.61 km elevated section of the line, officially called Reach-1, was awarded to NCC Ltd. on November 30 2015 and just a month later, they’ve started piling work for it.

After 2 rounds of bidding, the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) has emerged as the lowest bidder for supplying coaches for the 30.016 km Noida – Greater Noida metro project! Yesterday the Noida Metro Rail Corp (NMRC) opened the financial bids for 3 contenders which also included Alstom India (with a plant in Sri City, AP) and BEML (with a plant in Bangalore).

The NMRC will now take about a week to finalize the contract, which would entail CRRC to supply 19 train-sets of 4 coaches for a total of 76 coaches in 114 weeks.

Hyderabad Metro Rail authorities have set themselves a stiff target of getting the project ‘systems readiness’ from Miyapur to Mettuguda this year covering significant sections of the two major lines of Miyapur to LB Nagar (Corridor One) and Nagole to Shilparamam-Raidurg (Corridor Three).

Senior metro rail officials have already affirmed that all out efforts are being made to start commercial operations in at least two sections of Mettuguda-Nagole (8 km) on Corridor Three and Miyapur to S.R. Nagar (12 km) on Corridor One within the next few months. If the first stage is complete in all aspects, trial runs have commenced in the second construction stage and overhead stations are fast nearing completion. Besides, the two major depots spread across nearly 100 acres each – Uppal and Miyapur, have been completed.

L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad Managing Director and Chief Executive V.B. Gadgil said the major challenge for his engineers would be to complete the remaining seven rail over bridges in all aspects including the vital one to cross over the Secunderabad railway station, which will also provide access between overhead metro stations and the busy rail station down below through skywalks.

Bade wrote:What about Make in India ? No such clause when we have BEML and Alstom factories ? Why buy Chinese if they cannot make them locally.

3 weeks after the J Kumar-CRTG JV’s Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) #1 began its initial drive from Naraina Vihar to the Mayapuri shaft for the 58.596 km Pink line, TBM #2 has also now started its journey behind it! Before the end of 2015, the contractor for CC-20 of the Delhi Metro’s 159 km Phase 3 project began work and erected 8 temporary rings. After returning to the site on January 2, work restarted and so far 4 permanent rings have been placed for the up-line tunnel!

NALGONDA: Hyderabad Metro Rail service would be extended to the famous hill shrine of Yadadri in Nalgonda district for the convenience of the devotees. "In view of the heavy rush of pilgrims to the Yadadri temple, the Metro Rail service would be extended up till Rayagiri station in Nalgonda," Managing Director of Hyderabad Metro Rail, NVS Reddy said today.

Mr Reddy, along with Bhongir lawmaker Boora Narsaiah Goud, today visited the district on the instructions of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to study the feasibility of extending the Metro rail service to the place. "The pre-feasibility study of the project was undertaken today. Work on the long-term and short-term planning has begun," he said.

Reports would be submitted to the Chief Minister at the earliest, Mr Reddy added.

This is where the depot line splits up into 2 viaducts (entry & exit) and joins the main line to allow easy movement of trains to/from the depot.

BENGALURU: Never short on ambition, the Karnataka government is trying to revive a six-year-old project to provide a 40-km Light Rail Transit (LRT) network for Bengaluru, this time by seeking private investment.

Similar to tramways but with a higher passenger capacity, the LRT mode of mass transit exists in cities such as Nottingham (UK), Salt Lake City (USA) and Valencia (Spain). It is among the many projects to be showcased at Invest Karnataka, the first global investors' meet for chief minister Siddaramaiah's government, to be held in February.

The project was initially mooted to supplement the city's bus transport system and act as a feeder network for Namma Metro. From Rs 5,600 crore in 2010, the estimated cost of the project is now Rs 10,875 crore.

"We are ready with the detailed project report. The LRT will have a capacity of 15,000-40,000 peak hour peak direction passenger trips (phpdt), which is very similar to the Metro," said C Jayaram, director (projects) at Bangalore Airport Rail Link Limited, a special purpose vehicle anchoring the project.

The LRT will have two corridors: JP Nagar to Hebbal on the outer ring road (31.3 kms) and toll gate to peripheral ring road on Magadi road (10.6 km). "The government feels that this project can be taken up through private investment. Any investor interested can take it up," Commissioner for Industries and Commerce Gaurav Gupta said.

The initiatives have also boost establishment of ancillary units and helped generate employment.

"Delhi Metro's initiatives to indigenise manufacturing is in consonance with the 'Make in India' initiative of the central government and the establishment of three Metro coach manufacturing units in India to cater to the requirements of Metro market is a very positive development," DMRC MD Mangu Singh said at a seminar here.

DMRC officials said contract conditions mandating indigenisation have resulted in major coach manufacturing companies setting up production facilities in the country.

The contract conditions of DMRC mandate a cap on upper limit of 25 per cent for production abroad while the balance is to be necessarily manufactured in India either through tie-ups or a wholly-owned subsidiary.

Manufacturing units set up to supply coaches to DMRC are now engaged in manufacturing of rakes that will be exported to Australia for Queensland and Sydney Metros, it said.

Three Metro coach manufacturing units have already been established in India. While Bombardier Transportation has a unit in Savli (Gujarat), state-owned Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) has a unit in Bengaluru and Alstom has established a new facility at Sricity near Chennai.

Besides manufacturing coaches, eighteen major sub systems of these coaches have also been indigenised. This has led to establishment of ancillary industry and skilled man power development in house.

Window glasses, battery boxes, brake blocks, bogie frames, vacuum circuit breakers, propulsion among others are also being manufactured in India.

SaiK wrote:when it flows full speed at max levels, doesn't these pillars be designed fluid-dynamically to divert the water flows at the base?

New Delhi, Jan. 5: The "Mercedes" class left squirming by Delhi's odd-even car rationing today received sympathy from the Supreme Court, which suggested that Metro trains earmark premium seats where the affluent can sit "dignified" at a price.

"Mr Kumar, car owners who are coming (to the Delhi Metro), they must get some space to sit," Chief Justice T.S. Thakur told solicitor-general Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Centre in a case filed by car manufacturers against a diesel-vehicle registration freeze.

"Like, let us say, some of the clients of Mr (Abhishek) Singhvi (counsel for some of the automakers) travel in big cars like Mercedes, Toyota, etc," the court continued in a lighter vein before turning serious.

"But when such people are using the Metro, why can't you make suitable arrangements for more space?" Justice Thakur asked.

"You can have premium fares for such persons. Maybe you can increase the fare fivefold for such passengers. For instance, if the fare is Rs 20, make it Rs 100 for such passengers for a dignified place to sit."

Kumar said the Metro was already in the process of launching special coaches for a special class of passengers. He did not elaborate.

There was hope for the common man too. The bench suggested that Metro trains' frequency be doubled from one every three minutes to one every 90 seconds to cope with the rush set off by the odd-even rule. The bench asked the Centre and the Delhi government, which hold 50 per cent equity each in the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, to respond to both suggestions at the next hearing on February 2.

By then, the capital's 15-day experiment with allowing odd and even-numbered cars to ply only on alternate days will be over, but the state government has said the formula can be reintroduced whenever air pollution worsens. The bench, which included Justices A.K. Sikri and R. Banumathi, was hearing car manufacturers contesting its December 16 directive banning registration of diesel vehicles above 2000cc (SUVs and luxury cars) in the National Capital Region. During the hearing, amicus curiae (friend of the court) Harish Salve said the government should ensure that commuters are not inconvenienced by lack of sitting space in the Metro, and the court took the suggestion up.

Delhi Metro trains are largely overcrowded, and the crush has worsened since the odd-even rationing was introduced on January 1.

Work on digging the tunnel on the Howrah Maidan-Sealdah stretch of East-West Metro resumed on Friday after being stuck for more than three-and-a-half years. Railway minister Suresh Prabhu signalled the start of work at Howrah Maidan during a programme at Howrah station. Tamaghna Banerjee was present on Day 1 at the site when work began with the lowering of an iron base called “cradle” to hold the tunnel-boring machine. An engineer of Afcons Infrastructure, the firm executing the project on behalf of Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), said drilling would start once the work of fixing the entire machine gets over by the first week of March. “The entire project from Salt Lake’s Sector V to Howrah Maidan should be ready by 2018,” Prabhu said.

At Howrah Maidan, the tunnel would be built at a depth of 59ft from the surface. The tunnel under the Hooghly would be at a depth of 66ft (the approximate height of a six-storey building) from the riverbed. The depth from the water surface would be 154ft — 3ft shorter than the height of Shahid Minar. The depth of the tunnel in the Tollygunge-Dum Dum section ranges between 24 and 30ft.

The DMRC has set new travel time limits for commuter journey length to prevent loitering at stations, and failing to adhere to which will attract a penalty.

Commuters travelling a distance for which the fare is up to Rs 18 (approximately 9 stations) would be allowed to stay inside the metro premises for 65 minutes. The time limit is 100 minutes for travelling up to 14 stations (fare up to Rs 23) and 180 minutes for 15 and above (fare above Rs 23), said a senior DMRC official.

"This is aimed at controlling overcrowding at stations. Also, it has come to our notice that several people loiter in station premises," said the official. The new time limits will come into force from Monday. The DMRC will make announcements regarding the same till January 31.

The official said offenders will be penalised only from February 1. From Monday to January 31, the travel cards or token of commuters staying beyond the stipulated time will show error number 159. They will then have to report to customer care centres to make an exit without any penalty, the official said.

The new time limits, the official said, have been arrived at after calculating the maximum possible time that a commuter could take to travel specific distances. At present, commuters are allowed to stay inside the metro premises for 170 minutes if they enter from one station and exit from another irrespective of the distance travelled.