All we need to know about Ahmedabad Metro

Apnu Amdavad is going be the next Metro city which we all are eagerly waiting for and is much needed. We are all very much aware of the Ahmedabad traffic now, and with the constant increase in the population, the amount of traffic is surely not going down.

The Ahmedabad Metro rail project has been undertaken in order to portray a solution to this problem. After the success of BRTS, the government of Gujarat is there again to provide with safe, fast and an efficient metro with seamless connectivity. The Ahmedabad Metro has taken a leap on all the social media platforms, and people are already very excited about this.

The aim of Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation (GMRC) Limited is to provide the people of Ahmedabad with the most cost-efficient metro within the shortest span of time possible. It tries to have minimum land acquisition along with world-class State of art infrastructure. The project has been divided into two phases.

Phase 1

The construction started on 14th March 2015, and the total length is 40.03 km. With its aim to complete the first phase of the project by 2019, they have completed the first trail run recently on the 6.5km route. There are two corridors with a total length of 28.254 km. It has 6km of underground track, and the rest is elevated. This project will be connecting t the four corners of Ahmedabad and will be having a total of 32 stations with two corridors.

Corridor 1:

The North-South corridor which is 18.87 km in length has 15 stations and will connect Motera stadium and APMC through Sabarmati, AEC, Sabarmati Railway station, Ranip, Vadaj, Vijaynagar, Usmanpura, Old High court, Gandhigram, Paldi, Shreyas, Rajivnagar and Jivraj stations.

Corridor 2:

The other corridor which is the East-West corridor will be from Vastral Gam to Thaltej Gam. It is 21.16km long with 17 stations in the route. There is approximately a 6.5km underground section which has four underground stations, and the rest is elevated.

The metro will be passing through Nirant Cross Road, Vastral, Rabari Colony, Amraiwadi, Apparel Park, Kankaria East, Kalupur Railway Station, Ghee Kanta, Shahpur, Old High Court, Stadium, Commerce Six Road, Gujarat University, Gurukul Road, Doordarshan Kendra and Thaltej stations
For both the corridors, the old High Court station would be an interchange station.

Phase 2

It aims at streamlining the urban transportation system in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. It will also have two corridors with a total length of 28.254km. The first corridor will be 22.838km long and will connect Motera stadium and Mahatma Mandir. The second corridor is going to be 5.416km long from GNLU to GIFT city.
The estimated cost of phase 2 is said to be Rs 6758 crore. Due to intensive developments and also increase in the number of private vehicles in Gandhinagar, this would be very effective in order to commute hassle-free.

For your Suraksha

ATP

The Metro has a continuous Automatic Train Protection provided on the rolling stock in order to mineralize the accidents that can happen due to human errors. It has been a known fact that 60-70% of accidents take place due to human error which is being taken care of here.

Fire safety

In case of fire, the rolling stock is provided with fire detaining materials. Also, the electric cables used are low smoke zero halogen type which ensures passenger safety.

The rolling stock has it all

There is an emergency door at the ends of the cab for a well-directed evacuation. The rolling stock also has an inter-car couplers which have crash worthiness feature in order to reduce the injury in case of an accident. There are also broad gangways between the cars, platform screen doors, and screening of bags at the platform.

Over the sky

In order to reach the metro rails, there are going to be 4 or more sky walks to be built for the commuters. This way their time can be saved, and there won’t be any hurdles. The longest sky walk would be from Old High Court and Asharam road to Gujarati Sahitya Parishad road. For the ease of commuters and aged people, GMRC is also planning to set up an escalator or lift.

The contractors

Hyundai Rotem: Design, manufacture, supply, installation, testing, and commissioning of 96 standard gauge cars and personnel training

Nippon Signal: Signalling and train control systems.

Larsen and Toubro (L&T): Construction of the section between Kalupur and the west ramp including tunnels and two stations.

China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation and Tata Projects: Construction of a section between Thaltej Gam and West Ramp including a viaduct and seven stations.

Simplex Infrastructure: Construction of viaduct from the end of Shreyas station (North) to Ranip station (South) which is all elevated.

Maruti Infracreatio Pvt. Ltd.: Road regrade and resurfacing of roads in various zones of Ahmedabad.

Tops Security: Providing Security services.
There are many other contractors involved in the successful making of the Ahmedabad Metro.

Finance

The estimates investment is around $1.65 bn.
The Government of India and Government of Gujarat: $305.46m each
Japan International Cooperation Agency: A loan of $931.13m

Technology

For the train to be driverless, the Metro has ‘CATC’ (Continuous Automatic Train Control System) which includes ATP, ATO (Automatic Train Operation) and ATS (Automatic Train Operation).

The wait is over.

Finally, there is not much time left for the Metro Project to get over with. Brace yourself as 4th March 2019 would be a historic day for Ahmedabad as Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be inaugurating the 6km long Ahmedabad Metro train service between Apparel Park and Vastral Gam today during his visit. He will also be laying the foundation of the 28.28km second phase of the Ahmedabad Metro.

As per the estimation, the whole project would be available for public use by 2020. With this project, the people of Ahmedabad would be able to enjoy comfortable, reliable and affordable public transport. This would also result in less traffic congestion and better transport experience.