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India’s first passenger railway line was opened in April 1853 between Bombay and Thane. 160 years later and Bombay is now Mumbai, but the city is again hosting to the opening of a new railway.
Mumbai Metro Line One is a modern mass transit system that will run between the east and west of the city. It’s modern stainless steel electric trains and elevated track couldn’t be further from the Stephenson-designed steam locomotives of 1853.
Each four car unit will be capable of carrying up to 1,100 passengers, with a train running every three minutes at peak times. Manufactured in China by CSR Nanjing, The carriages are based on the Chinese domestic Type A design, but widened to increase capacity.
Amit Ramteke, rail consultancy Interfleet’s regional manager, says from his office in Mumbai: “The Mumbai Metro will be world class - definitely as good as Western metro rail systems in operation. There is no intention to purchase outdated technology.”
Interfleet was involved during the first stages of the Mumbai Metro Line One project and advised on rolling stock procurement. Despite delays, the project’s first section, an 11.5km line running from Versova to Ghatkopar, is expected to be opened by October this year. In addition, an 8km long monorail running between Wadala and Chembur in the city is due to be operational before the year end.
When complete in 2021, Mumbai’s metro will have three lines, be 146 km long and carry an estimated 1.5 million people a day. It will have India’s first fully underground train line, a 33km stretch through the business district. The rest of the track is elevated above the twists and turns of the city’s congested roads and buildings.
Mumbai, explains Ramteke, is a very old city. A “light-touch” approach to planning in the past means that the design and construction of the new Metro is anything but straightforward. “Developers may not have an exact idea about where underground gas, telephone or other utility lines are. Many times they have to dig and find out and then design, which takes time,” he says.
“There are also regulatory issues to consider. The right of way is not very clearly demarcated and is not always readily available for construction, which can cause delays.”
But the need for expansion of public transport in Mumbai, which is the fourth largest city in the world, is clear. Like the rest of the country, Mumbai, which is India’s financial and commercial capital, is growing rapidly. It’s population of 20.5 million is said to be growing at a rate of 2% a year. According to a study by consultancy Ernst & Young, Mumbai has a population density twice that of New York’s. “There are only so many flyovers that you can build,” says Amit. “By the time you have built the flyovers, the number of cars on the roads has grown and the flyovers are already chock-a-block.”
Traffic congestion within a city restricts its economic growth and reduces quality of life. It is a problem in the country’s urban areas, most of which lag behind the standard of public transport found in developed Western countries. The Indian government is only too aware of these problems. Last decade, as India’s economic and population growth outstripped the rest of the world’s, the its government introduced policies to improve public transport in its large cities.
Government criteria says that if the population of a city is more than 2 million it must have a mass transit transport solution, with local government responsible for procuring public transport infrastructure and services. The national government also announced last year that a $1 trillion will be invested in infrastructure up to 2017.
The result is a boom in Indian urban metro projects. Mumbai's metro and monorail network will be amongst the country's largest when completed. However, Delhi’s metro system is the furthest forward. The third phase of the Delhi Metro, about 140 km of track, is currently being built. It will take Delhi Metro’s total network size to 330 km.
The city of Hyderabad is also building a metro, a 72 km network. In addition a metro linking the cities of Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar is being built. This route will be about 43km long and is planned to be opened in the autumn of 2015.
The growth in the Indian sector hasn’t escaped the notice of the major international rail suppliers. French firm Veolia will be the operator of Mumbai Metro Line One. Siemens are supplying the automatic train control signalling system, while Thales is supplying the communications system.
Suppliers are setting up their own local manufacturing operations in India. Alstom is to open its own rolling stock manufacturing facility in SriCity, Andhra Pradesh, close to Chennai. Siemens has a plant manufacturing metro bogies in Aurangabad, Maharashtra.
Bombardier has a rolling stock manufacturing factory in Savli, Gujarat. Justin Keeley, head of Bombardier’s bogies division in the UK, says that his firm is the only real vehicle manufacturer in India at the moment that is Western and using local workers and products. He says: “The product they are making for Australia - the bogie, the frames, will be built in India. The train then gets shipped to Australia, where they build up the wheelsets and put it under the car body.
“They are into a different cost model [in India]. They don’t care how long things take, they want to know how to get the right quality, they want to use local suppliers and plate they can get from India.”
The Indian market itself is growing, he says, but is unpredictable. Locomotives for the mainlines between cities are discussed as an option, but the work on metro lines is much more likely to happen first and is being led by the success of the Delhi Metro project.
“It’s either going to be nothing or its going to be huge. To get ready we’ve been developing the next platform for that market,” Keeley says. “The development and design work is happening in Derby to ensure we can manufacture something which is the right price at the right time. We’ve got a good understanding, so that when we win one of these orders we can make it in this timescale with those features.”
With all of the recognised international companies in the Indian rail sector active on Metro projects its easy to think that Indian firms may be missing out on orders. This is not the case, says Amit, with manufacturing localised as much as possible in most cases. OEMs also often having Indian subsidiaries, making components such as doors, brakes and controls, air suspension.
Overall, he says, it is a very good time for the rail sector in India. “There is lots happening, with several cities looking for public transport solutions, predominantly metros or monorails,” he says. “India is one of the growing economies in the world and a growing economy needs city transport solutions. The faster they are built the more they can provide benefits to everybody. Its a very exciting time in the rail industry in India.”