First coaches of Hyderabad Metro arrive from Korea

The first three train cars for the Hyderabad Metro Rail project arrived here Wednesday from the Hyundai-Rotem Factory in Korea.

S.N. Subrahmanyam, wholetime director and senior executive vice president, construction and infrastructure, L&T, was part of the team that received the train cars at the Uppal depot.

He emphasized on the completion of the project within the scheduled time, cost and quality, said a company release.

"It is the beginning of a new era in the transportation history of Hyderabad," said N.V.S. Reddy, managing director, Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL).

V.B. Gadgil, chief executive and managing director, L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited, said they were ahead of time in bringing the trains to Hyderabad.

The three train cars were moved from Changwon factory of Hyundai Rotem to Masan Port, Korea April 25 and loaded onto a ship.

After travelling for about two weeks by Hyundai Glovis ship, they arrived at Chennai port May 9. The train cars were then transported to Hyderabad by road.

The trial run is scheduled to commence next month between Nagole and Mettuguda.

Commercial operations on the eight-km-long stretch are scheduled to start in March next year.

The 72-km-long elevated Metro rail project, being built at a cost of Rs.14,132 crore, is one of the biggest projects in the world in public private partnership (PPP) model.

A total of 171 coaches have been ordered for the project, which comprises three corridors. To start with, plans are afoot to run three-car trains and as the ridership improves, it will be turned into six-car trains.