The crucial factory acceptance test (FAT) of the communication system of Chennai Metro Rail was successfully conducted at Singapore recently.
A team of CMRL officials supervised the tests conducted at ST Electronics, which has been awarded the contract for developing the state-of-art train borne communication system, which includes train borne radio and multi vehicle bus protocol.
The most significant parts of the system — the emergency group call and the public address system used to inform passengers about the arrival and departure of trains at the stations — were also simulated and tested there.
As a part of the train borne driver only operated CCTV functional testing, a car was used in place of the train for simulating and testing videos from station to train via wireless transmission in 2.4GHz band.
The CCTV functional testing is vital in metro operation as it would not only help the driver supervise the platform or area around the train at the station and optimise security, but also monitor passenger movement, particularly their entry and exit from the metro cars.
France based Alstom Ltd, which produces coaches for CMRL at its factory at Sao Polo in Brazil, has readied the mock-up of the driver’s cabin area.
The mock-up, which would be brought to Chennai for display, would form the basis for manufacturing features for all the trains.
Alstom would manufacture all the 132 coaches — 33 four-car trains — for CMRL. While the first set of cars would be readied in Brazil, the rest would be manufactured in parts and assembled at an exclusive factory it had constructed for this purpose at Sri City near Tada in Andhra Pradesh.