First Chinese Metro rake to arrive on February 5
Jayanta Gupta | TNN | Updated: Mar 2, 2019, 06:52 IST
The MV Han Zang KOLKATA: The first rake for Metro Railway from CRRC Dalian Co Ltd in China is expected to arrive within the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) jurisdiction by Sunday. The 107.42-metre long MV Han Zhang that left the Shanghai port on February 5 with eight coaches of the state-of-the-art rake stopped at Chittagong and is now on its way to the anchorage at Sandheads, about 223km from Kolkata.
“The Hong Kong-flag vessel is expected to enter the Kolkata Dock System (KDS) of KoPT either on Sunday evening or early on Monday. The ship is carrying the rake weighing 364 tonnes. The coaches will be unloaded by the ship’s own cranes that have a capacity of 200 tonnes,” a KoPT official said.
This is the first time that a rake for the Metro Railway is arriving by sea. In fact, this is the first time that a rake for use in Kolkata is being imported. Officials are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the rakes from China as they would augment capacity and allow Metro to phase out older ones that are well past their operational lives. Metro Railway has ordered 14 rakes from Dalian and one of them is expected to reach Kolkata every month after the arrival of the first one.
“The rakes will use the port’s railway link to enter the Indian Railways system. It will then reach Dum Dum and cross over to the Metro tracks. In the past, rakes manufactured at ICF, Chennai, and elsewhere have been brought to Kolkata by rail. Even the last two rakes from ICF were hauled to Kolkata by locomotives. Rakes for the East-West Metro corridor arrived by road as they are standard gauge ones and can’t run on broad gauge tracks. The rake from China is coming well covered to prevent any damage and these will only be removed at the carshed. The wheels and undercarriages have been left free to allow haulage,” Metro Railway CPRO Indrani Banerjee said.
Unloading the rake will also be a tricky job for port authorities as the coaches will have to be gently lowered on to the railway tracks and then coupled. This is the first time that the port is handling such cargo.
“The Hong Kong-flag vessel is expected to enter the Kolkata Dock System (KDS) of KoPT either on Sunday evening or early on Monday. The ship is carrying the rake weighing 364 tonnes. The coaches will be unloaded by the ship’s own cranes that have a capacity of 200 tonnes,” a KoPT official said.
This is the first time that a rake for the Metro Railway is arriving by sea. In fact, this is the first time that a rake for use in Kolkata is being imported. Officials are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the rakes from China as they would augment capacity and allow Metro to phase out older ones that are well past their operational lives. Metro Railway has ordered 14 rakes from Dalian and one of them is expected to reach Kolkata every month after the arrival of the first one.
“The rakes will use the port’s railway link to enter the Indian Railways system. It will then reach Dum Dum and cross over to the Metro tracks. In the past, rakes manufactured at ICF, Chennai, and elsewhere have been brought to Kolkata by rail. Even the last two rakes from ICF were hauled to Kolkata by locomotives. Rakes for the East-West Metro corridor arrived by road as they are standard gauge ones and can’t run on broad gauge tracks. The rake from China is coming well covered to prevent any damage and these will only be removed at the carshed. The wheels and undercarriages have been left free to allow haulage,” Metro Railway CPRO Indrani Banerjee said.
Unloading the rake will also be a tricky job for port authorities as the coaches will have to be gently lowered on to the railway tracks and then coupled. This is the first time that the port is handling such cargo.
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