Scomi to complete one train every month for Mumbai monorail project
Each four-car monorail can carry about 600 passengers.
President Syahrunizam Samsudin said after the successful trial-run of the first four-car monorail in Mumbai early this year, Scomi has been steadily working towards meeting the project's deadline next year.
"The first train will be sent next month. Sometime next week, this train will undergo static and dynamic testing before it goes on a complete circuit run under the close supervision of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority technical team," he told a media conference at the roll-out of the first four-car train for the project.
The project is a 20km route between Jacob Circle and Chembur in Mumbai, with one central depot and 18 user-friendly and highly-secured stations.
Scomi Engineering and its consortium partner, Larsen & Toubro, secured the RM1.846 billion Mumbai Monorail project in November 2008.
They were given 30 months to complete India's first monorail project for which Scomi had to deliver 60 cars for 15 sets of four-car trains.
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The monorail cars are being built at Scomi’s Engineering, Technology and Innovation Centre in Rawang.
Syahrunizam, who believed the Mumbai monorail contract was the start of a new chapter in Scomi's public transport business, said the project was a Malaysian icon as the cars were 100% designed, built and delivered by Malaysia.
"We will ensure that by early next year, all the 15 sets of trains will be ready in Mumbai to begin trial runs before operations commence," he said.
Ratnakar Gaikwad, Metropolitan Commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, who were also present at the media conference, said more transport development needed to be done in Mumbai.
Besides the monorail project, he said the authority proposed to further expand the monorail network in the next five years.
"Mumbai has lots of problems. There is ongoing demand in Mumbai and in addressing the issues in the long run, we have identified certain plans and projects in terms of monorail, light rail transit and metro system," he said.
The authority was taking appropriate measures to strengthen infrastructures to provide an efficient traffic dispersal system for the growing population in Mumbai.
- Bernama
