Alstom completes in Lapa plant the first train for Chennai metro, in India

Alstom Transport plant in Lapa (São Paulo, Brazil) has completed the manufacturing of the first trainset for Chennai metro (India), thus achieving an important milestone in the 243 M contract signed by the company in 2010 to supply 42 trainsets to Chennai Metro Rail Limited[1].

The 4 cars Metropolis stainless steel trains feature electrically operated automatic sliding doors, larger gangway, air-conditioning, dedicated space for passengers with reduced mobility, route map in English & Tamil, LED display and announcement for passenger information, and luggage racks. They will be equipped with a regenerative braking system ensuring significant energy savings. 

The first 9 trains are being manufactured in the Alstom Transport Lapa plant in (Brazil), while the other 33 trains have just started to be produced in India, in the newly built Sri City plant, Alstoms first rolling stock factory in India. To seamlessly continue the production of the trains in Sri City, a significant technology transfer was performed between the Brazilian and the Indian unit. 65 Indian employees were tutored and trained in Brazil in order for them to acquire the knowledge and experience necessary to meet the requirements defined by the customer . Manufacturing processes, and best practices were shared, creating an important knowledge exchange between two BRIC countries.

The train will soon be shipped to India out of Santos port. Arrival in the port of Chennai is scheduled for beginning of June. In Chennai the four cars will be assembled and will commence a 4 months testing process.

Chennais metro project has been initiated in 2007. The phase 1 consists of two interconnected lines, linking North Chennai to the Airport in the South and Chennai Central to St. Thomas Mount. It will include 32 stations -19 equipped with full size platform screen doors- over 45 km (24 km underground and 21 km elevated). These lines have been planned with a capacity to carry more than 500,000 people daily and a frequency between two trains as short as 3 minutes. The entire project is scheduled to be completed by 2014-2015.

Alstom has sold more than 4.000 Metropolis metro around the world, equipping cities such as Amsterdam, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Nanking, Santiago, Santo Domingo, São Paulo, Shanghai and Singapore, among others. One out of every four metros operating worldwide is an Alstom metro. Alstom metropolis metro have travelled over 400 million kilometers.

[1] Chennai Metro Rail Limited is a Joint Venture of the Government of India and the Government of the Tamil Nadu State created for implementing the Chennai Metro Rail Project.

Press contacts 
Mariana Maciel (Alstom Brazil & Latin America) Tel.: +5511 3612-7074
mariana.maciel@crn.alstom.com