This story is from June 12, 2019

After Monday’s disruption, Kolkata Metro back to old rakes; services dip

An inherent fault in the Third Rail Current Collectors (TRCCs) of the new rakes delivered by Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, led to Monday’s snag in the Metro that threw the city’s lifeline out of gear for over four hours.
After Monday’s disruption, Kolkata Metro back to old rakes; services dip
The damaged TRCC of the ICF rake
KOLKATA: An inherent fault in the Third Rail Current Collectors (TRCCs) of the new rakes delivered by Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, led to Monday’s snag in the Metro that threw the city’s lifeline out of gear for over four hours. Metro Railway has got in touch with ICF and technicians will be reaching Kolkata on Wednesday to carry out an inspection and rectify the issue.
Metro Railway now has five new ICF rakes and the one that developed a snag on Monday was the third in the series (Medha 3).
Faults in the air-conditioning ducts and sliding doors were detected in the first two rakes and they are no longer running commercial services, pending repairs. With the third rake also developing a snag, Metro Railway is back to its old fleet of ageing AC rakes and vintage non-AC ones with which it will be impossible to resume 300 daily services. The number of services has now come down to 284.
image (24)

“The Dalian rake that arrived from China has an advanced TRCC with a fuse that will prevent such snags. The ICF rakes also have a fuse, but it’s located elsewhere. On Monday, a sharp edge of a tray near the TRCC of the ICF rake severed a cable that got earthed and damaged the whole system at Sovabazar station. The system was so severely affected that the rake could not be moved without the help of specialised equipment. Over the last few months, we have written to ICF to resolve the problems of the new rakes. Our officers have also spoken to them over the phone. Our general manager has taken up the matter at the highest level,” Metro Railway CPRO Indrani Banerjee said.
ICF, Chennai, doesn’t have much experience in manufacturing Metro coaches. The factory’s mainstay is conventional coaches for Indian Railway’s open line. Apart from Kolkata’s Metro Railway, no other Metro network in the country operates ICF rakes. Even the East West Metro corridor in Kolkata is procuring rakes from defence PSU BEML. ICF still has orders for several more rakes of Metro Railway though it doesn’t even have a test track for the coaches. In fact, ICF doesn’t even manufacture the coaches. It just builds the shell and a few other parts while assembling equipment procured from other firms. The lot of five rakes with Metro have propulsion systems supplied by a firm named Medha, hence they are called Medha rakes.
“It is a dismal situation. Trials were conducted on the new ICF rakes for nearly two years and several rectifications made. Yet, their performance is not up to the mark. Unless the matter is sorted out soon, we won’t have sufficient fit rakes for commercial runs. The 13 existing AC rakes are getting old and the 10-odd non-AC ones are well past their codal life. The Dalian rake will also have to undergo stringent trials before it can be introduced and we can order more,” a Metro official said.
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA