On June 29, Alstom’s first metro in India entered commercial service in the city of Chennai on the first phase of line 2 from Koyambedu to Alandur, which covers 10 kilometres and includes 8 stations. Present at the inauguration were Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Pankaj Kumar Bansal, managing director, Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), Bharat Salhotra, managing director, Alstom Transport India, as well as key government officials and other prominent dignitaries. More than 80,000 passengers are expected to travel per day on the new metro line.
In 2011, Alstom was awarded a contract worth €243 million for the supply of 42 metro trainsets (168 metro cars) for the Chennai Metro in India. As part of its global strategy to reinforce customer proximity and better adress the rising demand for mobility in several cities in India, Alstom has set up in 2012 a manufacturing plant in Sri-City. Close to 80 percent of the Metropolis trainsets ordered by CMRL were manufactured there while the first nine train sets (36 metro cars) were produced at Alstom’s factory in Lapa, Brazil. Alstom has already delivered 25 out of 42 trains for this project. Alstom has also carried out the design of trackworks for the Chennai metro project.
