Airport Line trains to be in Delhi soon, tests to start

The first set of trains, procured from CAF, Spain which also supplied trains to Hong Kong airport metro and London's Heathrow Express have arrived at the Mundra port and will reach Delhi in another three-four days, an official spokesperson of the Reliance Infrastructure-led Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt Ltd said.

The Airport Express Line, once operational, will cover the entire 23 kms from New Delhi to Indira Gandhi International Airport in just about 20 minutes – that too in a luxury environment.

Once the trains reach Delhi, they will be stationed at the Dwarka depot for the mandatory tests to be conducted.

"Static tests will be done and it will take 4-5 days. After the static tests are over, the train will be put on test track for testing. Thereafter, the rake would be transferred to the mainline where low-speed and high-speed test would be carried out. Finally, oscillation trials will be carried out under the supervision of RDSO. The entire process will take 2 to 3 months," the spokesperson said.

Lalit Jalan, CEO, Reliance Infrastructure, said the Airport Express Line, which will be the showcase line of the capital, will be operational by September, a month before the Commonwealth Games.

"The Airport Line will be better than anything that the city has seen till now. We are going to use the best technologies available around the world and are completing work on a war footing to open the line by September," he said in a statement.

Once the tests are over, the trial runs on the line will begin. However, it is not yet clear when the trial runs will begin. The Airport Express Line is the first metro line in the country to come up on Public Private Partnership model.

The DMRC will create all the civil structures and hand them over to Reliance Infrastructure which will run the high-speed corridor for 30 years.

This will also be the first line in the country to be mapped on Geographic Information System to enhance safety, maintenance and traffic regulation. Mapping the corridor on GIS will help in mobilising emergency services in case of a blast or fire on the train.

The company will map all the emergency services, including fire stations, police stations, hospitals etc. along the alignment, the spokesperson said.

The company has already made some maps for the Delhi alignment and when the construction of the corridor is complete, locations of the piers, viaduct, stations will be imported into GIS.The trains on this line will be entirely different from the existing ones and will have in-built noise reduction features for a noise-free ride in a plush ambience.
The wheels will have flange lubrication system for less noise and better riding comfort. Each coach will have LCD screens for entertainment of the passengers and will also show flight information for convenience of air travellers.

The trains will be fitted with an event recorder which can withstand high levels of temperature and impact and will act as a black box and aid investigations in case of an accident.