Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has taken the first step towards building its train fleet and operating more efficiently in Namma Metro network. The new six-coach metro train under Titagarh-CRRC (China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation) contract has been officially introduced into the Green Line and runs for 33 km between Madavara and Silk Institute.
The new train has been commissioned for service and has received the necessary safety approval from the CMRS as per the design and operation of the trains. So far four CRRC-Titagarh train sets have been commissioned to BMRCL and will be brought into service in phases.
The arrival of these new trains, however, does not at first imply that they will be able to increase the number of trains on the Green Line or passenger waiting time will be reduced in any way or the number of trains will decrease at all and so on.
Instead, BMRCL will use the extra trains to support the maintenance and inspection of older Phase-1 trains to maintain and clean up older Phase-1 trains. Some older trains have been running continuously for years and need to be thoroughly checked and serviced.
The full examination and servicing of every major maintenance train that comes in for major service will take about 15 days to complete. The new trains will provide the replacement capacity to take older trains out of service for a few weeks so that older trains can be removed from service without adding to the demand on the fleet.
BMRCL is expected to receive 21 new six-coach trains by the second quarter of 2027. The 21 trains are to be deployed on the Green Line, and maintenance and operational management will be conducted at Peenya depot. The remaining 20 trains will be manufactured at Titagarh's Uttarpara facility in West Bengal.
The phased arrival of the trains will allow BMRCL the capacity to handle the Green Line fleet (without the need of the periodic maintenance of older trains) and will also help prepare the company for the changing passenger demand on the network as Bengaluru’s metro ridership increases.
The planned fleet expansion could eventually have a major impact on the Purple Line, one of Bengaluru’s busiest metro corridors. When all 21 new trains are deployed on the Green Line, BMRCL plans to move 17 BEML-manufactured trains at their disposal to the Purple Line connecting Challaghatta to Whitefield.
The Purple Line has become an essential east-west public transportation line connecting a number of major residential, commercial and employment hubs. Additional trains on the route would be more flexible to handle the demand and capacity for service and more capacity could be raised during heavy crowds, the company said.
The demand for additional trains is only going to be more acute as the metro ridership in Bengaluru increases for metro to reach the one million-passenger per day level. The Purple and Green lines constitute a large proportion of the metro traffic in the city, with a number of six-coach trains serving the line. The total number of passengers in a six-coach train is approximately 2,002 on a typical day.
Heavy passenger loads on the network can make for crowded platforms and coaches, both during peak times of the day. This is why BMRCL is looking at expanding its fleet as well as improving operation to take advantage of the metro growth.
Besides bringing in new trains, BMRCL is also working on the signalling system to enhance capacity for more frequent services. The network already has the capability to run trains at intervals of around 3 minutes when suitable operations are present and the corporation is also looking into upgrading signalling systems in the longer term to enable trains to run at intervals of around 2 minutes.
With new rolling stock, maintenance support for older trains, redeployment of BEML trains and signalling upgrades, Namma Metro’s operation will be enhanced. With Bengaluru increasingly dependent on mass transit to meet the high traffic demand, a 21-train addition can be an important aspect of BMRCL’s strategy to improve fleet availability and control congestion in the Green and Purple lines.
