The first trial run on the Sealdah-Esplanade Metro stretch through the mishap affected west-bound tunnel was conducted successfully today.
According to the city Metro office, the trial started at 11.20 a.m. with a rake MR 607 from Sealdah Metro station. The test run was overseen by the general manager of Kolkata Metro Railway and chairman of Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited (KMRCL), P Uday Kumar Reddy along with other senior officers who were on board at the motorman’s cabin. In a momentous journey, it took the rake 11 minutes to cover the 2.63 km stretch and reach Esplanade Metro station of the Green Line at 11.30 a.m. After the successful trial run, the Metro railway GM held a meeting with the officers of Metro Railway and KMRCL at Esplanade Metro station.
“The rake was then sent back to Sealdah through the west-bound tunnel. Trials for the east-bound tunnel have already been completed. This tunnel is now used routinely for the exchange of rakes. Rakes used for commercial services in the Esplanade-Howrah Maidan stretch go back to the depot at Salt Lake for maintenance, as and when required. Replacement rakes are then sent through this tunnel to Esplanade from Salt Lake,” a senior MR official said.
Notably, the KMRCL has sought a forty-five days block to validate newly-installed software train operations without carrying passengers and fine tuning of new software. If any snag is noticed then the same reports shall be sent to overseas laboratories for fine tuning the software. In addition, fine-tuned software would also be reloaded and the cycle of verification would continue. Before commissioning of Green Line 1 of the 5-km stretch, five rakes were run for a total 10,000 kilometres for conducting 1,000 plus trials to get third party certification of safe to operate. The city Metro is, however, exploring options of minimising the block days and finding out ways to carry out the trial runs and other related works without taking such long blocks.