Scomi Successfully Tested Four-car Trains In MumbaiI

By Saraswathi Muniappan MUMBAI, April 7 (Bernama) -- Scomi Engineering Bhd has successfully tested its four-car trains at 80km per hour, a feat that it has never done before with its monorail cars. "It is a proud moment for us because these cars were built and tested in Malaysia, dismantled, shipped to Mumbai and assembled back," country president, Scomi Engineering and president, Scomi International Pvt Ltd, Kanesan Velupillai said. Kanesan said the testing at that speed, which was a prerequisite requirement by the client, was the beginning of the testing and commencement phase at full swing of the first 9km. "It reflects not only the ability of Scomi as a company but also the teamwork, as it was done not with the integration of the car system alone, but also communication, signalling, electrical and civil system interface. "We have brought a team from Kuala Lumpur to join one in Mumbai for the testing and commencement phase. "About 30 people are working on this phase alone," he told Bernama in an interview. He said the train was the latest version by SUTRA (Scomi Urban Transit Rail Application) which has cutting edge monorail technology. "The vehicle management system is far more integrative and has more security and safety features as well as the ability to carry more passengers. "We are catering to 142 passengers as compared to 113 earlier," he said. The parts of the cars were of latest standards in the world and designed to last longer, he said. "We have dusty environment in India, cold months as well as monsoon season. All these were taken into account before the cars were built," he said. Kanesan said Scomi would be able to finalise the testing and commencement phase and submit the project to the client, the state-government of Maharashtra, by July, as they planned to begin operation for the first 9km by September this year. He said Scomi would be able to supply all the 15 cars for Mumbai monorail project to the government within this year. Going forward, he said, the company has started the second phase of the project involving 10.5km. Scomi Engineering and its consortium partner, Larsen & Toubro, had secured the RM1.846 billion (US$602 million) Mumbai Monorail project in November 2008. It is a 19.5-kilometre project, of which the first phase is 9km between Chembur and Wadala and second phase is 10.5km from Jacob Circle to Wadala. The system connects the bus network, the coming metro system and the suburban trains, which is the backbone of Mumbai. -- BERNAMA