Hitachi Rail STS awarded ₹1,620 crore Signalling system contract for Chennai Metro Line 3

Chennai, India (Metro Rail Today): The Chennai Metro Rail Ltd (CMRL) has finally issued a work order/letter of acceptance (LoA) worth Rs 1,620 crore to Hitachi Rail STS SpA in joint venture with Hitachi Rail STS India Private Limited for contract package ASA04 for the supply of Signalling and Train Control and Video Management systems for Corridor 3 of the Chennai Metro Rail Project, Phase 2.

The contract agreement was signed between Hitachi Rail STS and Chennai Metro Rail Limited in Chennai on 5th December 2022.

Tender notice for the Design, Manufacture, Supply, Installation, Testing and Commissioning of Signalling and Train Control System and Video Management System for 45.81 km Corridor 3 (Madhavaram – SIPCOT 2) was issued in August 2021 with 1640 days work completion deadline. Technical bids were opened in May 2022. Only two bidders Hitachi Rail STS SpA and Nippon Signal India Pvt. Ltd.

Siemens Ltd and Alstom Transport did not participate in this contract package due to special conditions imposed by the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) as the contract package is being financed by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). In other words, this contract was reserved for Japanase companies only.

"The state-of-the-art Communication-based Train control system (CBTC) will enable automatic unattended train operation in phase 2 of Chennai Metro Rail project with a minimum headway of 90 seconds. It was a long-drawn process from the issuance of NIT in August 2021 with multiple rounds of pre-bid queries, and concurrence from JICA at every stage," said Rajesh Chaturvedi, Director (Systems & operations), Chennai Metro Rail Ltd.

The 45.813 km corridor 3  (19.09 km elevated & 26.72 km underground) of Chennai Metro will connect  Madhavaram Milk Colony to SIPCOT 2 through 49 metro stations.

For more details, please explore the Chennai Metro page of Metro Rail Today.