Soon, 2 newly-built air-conditioned rakes for north-south Metro services

Two newly-designed air-conditioned rakes with four talk back systems in each compartment will be introduced in the existing north-south Metro service soon.

One of the two rakes manufactured by Integral Coach Factory will be reaching Kolkata on Monday and the other will be brought by the end of August.

At present, there are 13 air-conditioned rakes that ply between Kavi Subhas Metro Station in South to Noapara Metro Station in the North. With two more getting added, the total number of air-conditioned rakes will become 15. Moreover, they are

going to get added before the biggest festival in the state — Durga Puja.

It may be mentioned that lakhs of people, mainly the pandal hoppers, avail the Metro service during Puja the entire night. In the newly-designed rakes, there will be four talk back systems in each coach. Using the system, a passenger can easily contact the motorman in case there is any emergency situation in the moving train. The motorman will take necessary steps as soon as he gets the message.

A passenger just has to

press a button situated on the wall of a coach and can speak to the motorman through intercom.

Moreover, the vestibules those joining the coaches through which passengers move from one coach to another are much wider compared to that of the previous rakes.

The wider vestibules will allow better air circulation as a result there will be no scope for passengers to complain that they cannot feel the cool are of the air-conditioner when the rakes are packed with passengers.

The journey in these new rakes will be more comfortable as there are no more metallic springs under it. Instead of this, rubber springs have been used in these rakes.

"By the end of this year, as many as four more air-conditioned rakes will be coming from China and gradually we wish to introduce all air-conditioned rakes," said Indrani Banerjee, CPRO, Metro Railway.