Titagarh Wagons unveils India's first Aluminium made Metro Train for Pune Metro Project

Kolkata, India (Metro Rail Today): The country’s lightweight first train made of the aluminum body was flagged off for the Pune Metro Rail Project in an event held at Uttarpara, Kolkata by Manoj Joshi, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on March 26, 2022. The flag-off event was attended by Dr. Brijesh Dixit, Managing Director, Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MahaMetro); Jaydeep, Officer-on-Special Duty (OSD), MoHUA; Sunil Mathur, Director (Rolling Stock), MahaMetro; J.P. Chowdhary, Chairman, Totagarh Group; Umesh Chowdhary, CEO, Titagarh Wagons Limited and officials of Titagarh Wagons.

After flagging off the train, Manoj Joshi, Secretary, MoHUA said, "A new eco-system is being developed in the country because of metro projects in the country. Manufacture of such a train is a big step towards the Make in India concept." Joshi congratulated the Pune Metro team for taking a bold decision to use aluminum-made trains. He said that ten years back, such a decision couldn’t even be thought off, and also Totagarh Wagons has taken the risk in this field. He said that having made this train, its maintenance and ensuring quality is also a challenge.

"Manufacture of such a light-weight aluminum–body train in India for the first time and its use for Maha Metro project is a major step. Work on the Nagpur Metro project was started in 2015 and then there was not a single company manufacturing metro trains in the country. Much progress has been achieved in this direction since then," said Dr. Brijesh Dixit, MD, Maha Metro.

Two lines of the Pune project have been recently launched and passenger services on the remaining project will soon be started. The Maharashtra government has given extensive co-operation in executing Metro projects in the state, he added.

Jaydeep, OSD, MoHUA said the use of aluminum coach was a major achievement for Mass Rapid Transit System projects in the country. This is a landmark decision and a step toward fulfilling the concept of Atma Nirbhar Bharat as envisaged by the Central government. 

"The dream and vision of Titagarh is to be a fully integrated metro and modern passenger train manufacturer in India, not only catering to the Indian market but also making in India for the world. We now have the capacity to manufacture up to 250 coaches a year and will enhance this to be able to produce 450 coaches per year in a couple of years. Further, we will be continuously working on increasing the indigenous content and have set up a state-of-the-art facility for manufacturing traction motors, traction converters, etc. in-house," said Umesh Chowdhary, CEO of Titagarh Wagons.

"After winning the Pune Metro award, the company has upgraded its unit at Uttarpara to manufacture these modern metro coaches and has indigenised several critical components such as bogie frames, interiors, brake systems for these trains. The company also plans to ramp up its production capacity of coaches over the next two years," he said.

"The Titagarh group is participating in various other tenders for metro coaches in India in addition to the focus on propulsion vertical," he added.

Here are some salient features of Aluminium-body Metro train:

• The lightest Metro Coaches in India (6.5% lighter than the conventional stainless-steel coaches).
• The most energy efficient metro cars due to the lighter weight.
• Being aluminium Car Body have longer life and low maintenance.
• Total 34 Trains, each with three car compositions, (Total 102 coaches).
• 3 Car Composition, Total Passenger Capacity: 978 passengers for 3 car train [Driving Motor Car-315, Trailer Car-348], Seats=140 [Driving Motor Car-44, Trailer Car-52 (including 2 wheelchairs)
• 66% Powering with More than 30% energy regeneration- Regenerative braking from 70 kmph to 10 kmph.
• Panic Button for safety of passengers-4 no. in each car. The passenger can communicate to driver directly in case of any emergency.
• In-train CCTV Coverage: 98%.

The first of the three metro trains from the Italian subsidiary Titagarh Firema SpA was flagged off and launched for normal operations on March 7, 2022.

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