With air-conditioned trains, MRTS to be on a par with Metro Rail

After taking over the MRTS network, the Chennai Metro Rail plans to operate air-conditioned trains between Chennai Beach and Velachery.

The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) has begun preliminary work, and will soon float bids for purchasing air-conditioned train sets for the MRTS network, and for upgrading the stations, sources said.

Even if CMRL floats the tenders in a couple of months, it will take at least 18-24 months for the trains to be manufactured and delivered to the city, they added.

The trains will likely be operated every seven minutes, and the signalling system will be switched to communications-based train control (the same system to be deployed in CMRL’s phase II network), a source said.

‘Significant overhaul’