Chennai Metro to get 70 more driverless trains; expansion project estimated at Rs 3600 crores

Chennai: Metro Railway Authorities have announced that they would build 70 more driverless trains. The contract for this has been awarded to Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML). These trains will be built with three coaches each at BEML's workshop in Bengaluru. The tender for the project is worth ₹3,600 crore.

Although the trains will be driverless, staff will be employed to address passenger complaints during the journey. Each train will be capable of carrying up to 1,000 passengers per trip.

The initial contract for building 36 driverless trains, each with three coaches, was awarded to Alstom, a company based in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh. Alstom delivered the first driverless train last month, which has been handed over to Chennai Metro Railway. The train is currently undergoing trial runs at the metro yard in Poonamallee.

Construction is underway for the second phase of the Metro Railway project, which includes three routes. These are: from Lighthouse to Poonamallee Bypass (26.1 km), from Madhavaram Milk Colony to Siruseri SIPCOT (45.8 km)  and from Madhavaram to Sholinganallur (47 km).

The routes where driverless metro trains will operate are: Madhavaram Milk Colony-Siruseri SIPCOT route, Lighthouse-Poonamallee Bypass route and Madhavaram-Sholinganallur route.