Pune: The first aluminium bodied coaches to be used in Pune Metro will arrive in the month of August this year, which is just seven months away. The production of these coaches is likely to start in April 2021 and the first coach for Pune Metro is scheduled to be dispatched by August 15.

The model of coach for Pune Metro was unveiled on January 9 (Saturday) by Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs of the central government. Mishra visited the Titagarh Firema manufacturing facility setup for producing these first aluminium bodied metro coaches in India at the Kolkata Plant.

After unveiling the model, Mishra took to his twitter account and updated the revised schedule for production and dispatch of the coaches for Pune Metro. Mishra said, “Privileged to unveil model of coach for Pune Metro at Titagarh Firema HQ in Kolkata today. This is the first lightweight aluminium bodied coach which is fuel efficient and has additional safety and convenience features. Its design was finalised few months back and now model is ready.”

“First train set from Titagarh’s Italian Plant will get dispatched in May 2021 and from Kolkata Plant by August 15, 2021. Thanks Titagarh for adhering to delivery schedule despite challenges of Covid-19 in both places where its plants are located,” he added.

Mishra said, “Production in the factory is likely to start in April 2021 and the first coach for Pune is scheduled to be dispatched by August 15, 2021. The plant is being developed as an integrated plant with many key components such as bogies, propulsion etc to be ultimately produced in-house.”

The Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MahaMetro) on January 3 successfully completed the trial run of Pune Metro Rail Project on the six-kilometre stretch between Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and Phugewadi on the Metro Line 1 of PCMC to Swargate. This trial run was conducted one year after the first trial run on one-kilometre stretch between PCMC to Sant Tukaram Nagar was conducted on January 10, 2020.