Global firms involved in Mumbai Metro One

In 2011, Mumbai’s suburban commuters will be able to swipe their card tickets and board the metro rail. There will be no need to queue up at station windows while commuting on the first high-speed metro rail corridor coming up between Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar (VAG). For residents staying along this metro corridor, the movement of trains would be noiseless. The contract for the VAG corridor’s Automatic Fare Collection systems has been awarded to Spanish firm Indra by the implementing agency, the Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd led by Reliance Energy. The contracts for laying tracks and installing communication systems between operators and passengers have been awarded to VNC-Rail One and Thales respectively. VNC-Rail One is a joint venture between VNC from Visakhapatnam and Rail One from Germany whereas Thales is a French giant.The proposed AFC system for the VAG corridor is a closed loop system based on contactless smart card technology. The company will be responsible for the design, manufacture, delivery, installation, commissioning and maintenance of the systems. One of the most experienced contractors in the world for AFC systems, Indra has successfully completed and commissioned similar work for Metro systems in Madrid, Lisbon, Shanghai, Barcelona and Athens. MMOPL has said that it plans to complete the project in a record 30 months.The tracks would be almost zero maintenance with a noiseless and vibration-proof system to make it environmentfriendly, said the MMOPL officials. Thales, a French giant in defence and communication systems, would employ the most sophisticated technology and would entail the use of closed circuit cameras at all stations, within the trains and at depots. The communication system will have passenger information display, passenger announcement and radio systems, master clock and time synchronisation system with optic fibre-based backbone transmission network as well as a system for transferring CCTV images from moving trains to the Operation and Control Centre and stations on a real time basis. The entire system would be attached to the black box as part of security measures, an official pointed out. Thales has undertaken numerous such projects for metro lines across the world, including the Delhi Metro.