6-coach trains to be converted into 8 by yr-end

New Delhi: By the end of this year, all the trains on the Delhi Metro's Red, Yellow and Blue line are going to undergo conversion as the remaining fleet of 6-coach trains will be switched to 8-coach trains by adding 120 additional coaches to three of these corridors.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), in a press note, said that by the end of this month, the process of converting all twelve 6-coach trains on Yellow Line (Huda City Centre to Samaypur Badli) into 8-coaches will be completed thereby taking the total number of 8-coach trains on this line to 64.

Subsequently, remaining nine 6-coach trains on Blue Line (Dwarka Sec-21 to Noida Electronic City/Vaishali) and thirty nine 6-coach trains on Red Line (Rithala to Shahid Sthal New Bus Adda) will be converted into 8-coach trains by the end of this year taking the total number of 8-coach trains on these lines to 74 and 39 respectively, DMRC said.

"Out of these 120 coaches, 40 coaches have been procured from M/s Bombardier and 80 coaches from Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML)," Executive Director (corporate communications), DMRC, Anuj Dayal said.

The conversion is being carried out to increase the carrying capacity of three main corridors of the Delhi Metro i.e., Red, Blue and Yellow Lines, which contribute to almost 40 to 50 per cent of passenger utilisation every day. Significantly, these three corridors which were initially made operational under Phase-1 were built on Broad Gauge having provision of running trains up to 8-coach formation.

"Rest of the Lines from No.5 to 9 and Airport Express Line which were subsequently taken up in Phase-II and Phase-III are all built on Standard Gauge having provision of running trains up to 6-coach formation only," Dayal further said.