Come February, the commuters of Kolkata Metro would finally get a taste of travelling in the most advanced coaches they have seen, with China-made rakes making their way into the 'City of Joy', a senior railways official said.
Imported at a cost of Rs 7.1 lakh per coach from the China Railway Rolling Stock Corp. Ltd (CRRC), the city would get 14 trains with a total of 112 coaches, he told PTI.
This means Kolkata Metro will soon be able to shed its non-AC rakes, at least in the existing north-south corridor.
"These will be state-of-the-art AC coaches with comfortable seating and much like the metro trains run by the DMRC in Delhi. They will also have CCTV cameras," said the official.
Real-time footage from the coaches will be visible to the motorman, who will monitor it on a console. This would enable him to act swiftly in case of any disturbance in the coaches, officials said.
The coaches would be fitted with 30-tonne air conditioners, instead of the existing 22-tonne machines.
The commuters will also be able to communicate with the motorman during an emergency through eight talk-back units.
Once operational, the trains will replace the old ones, which have been running for over three decades in Kolkata's 27.22-km-long south-north subway line.
As many as 300 Kolkata Metro services ferry over 6,50,000 commuters on a daily basis, making it the second-busiest metro system in India after Delhi.
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