Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC)inked a contract for procurement of coaches for the East-West Metro corridor in June this year.
But, to the benefit of KMRC, coaches are now available at nearly half the price, for approximately Rs 7 crore each, than was originally estimated.
As against its original plan to procure 11 trains (of six coaches each) at approximately Rs 866 crore, KMRC will now buy 14 trains from the CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles) – MELCO consortium.
This is for a total consideration of approximately Rs 600 crore.CAF consortium won the contract against competing bids from the ROTEM-Toyo Denki joint venture also and a consortium of Kawasaki-Toshiba-Mitshubishi.
The 15-km stretch will be made operational in two phases. The first phase (a nearly 9-km stretch) will be operational in March 2015. The second phase (of 6 km) would be operational a year later.
