Kolkata Metro Railways Announces 09 Additional Traction Substations to come up in Blue Line.

*NINE ADDITIONAL TRACTION SUBSTATIONS TO COME UP IN BLUE LINE*

*DIRECTIONAL AXIAL FANS TO BE INSTALLED FOR BETTER COOLING OF STATIONS*

Metro Railway Kolkata is upgrading its different systems for improvement of its services, amenities and safety system. As a part of this initiative, Power Supply System, Traction Substations, Tunnel Ventilation System, Environment Control System (commonly known as Air-conditioning System), Signalling System, Third Rail System, Rail Track System are going to be upgraded very soon to prepare the Blue Line for the future where trains shall be operated with reduced headway to achieve the ultimate goal of 90 sec with which London, Moscow Metro is operating at present. The Ministry of Railways has already sanctioned umbrella works to implement these ambitious projects.

In order to improve train operations in Blue Line, which is a 41 years old Corridor and country’s oldest Metro Corridor, seven additional traction substations will be constructed along its stretch. A work has been proposed to add under sanctioned umbrella work. Seven additional sub-stations will be built at Kalighat, Netaji Bhawan, Maidan, Esplanade, M.G. Road, Sovabazar-Sutanuti and in between Belgachia and Shyambazar. With this, Blue Line shall have traction substations at each station like Purple Line and Orange Line. Apart from this, in order to meet the demand of additional traction power with fire safety, an order for two Traction Sub Stations (TSS) at Chandni Chowk and Geetanjali has already been placed. The TSS coming up at Chandni Chowk will help to avoid congestion of rakes between Esplanade and Central stations where there are two TSS for four stations.

In addition, the ventilation and cooling system of stations as well as tunnels are also being upgraded. In the 41 year old existing system, tunnels were also cooled as the rakes were non air conditioned. But as Metro Railway, Kolkata is now armed with all AC rake fleet, discarding all non AC rakes, it provides the opportunity to shift to state-of-the-art TVS (Tunnel Ventilation System) to have state-of-the-art smoke extraction system as well. In the existing system, forced ventilation using centrifugal fans of 110 kW at fourteen midpoints are being used. These fans rotate 24X7 hours and consume total energy of 3 crores units annually at a cost of Rs 21 Cr annually.

By installing Variable Frequency Drive in midpoint in 2021-2022 this consumption was reduced to half. These fans can rotate in one direction to work as exhaust fans. All these fans shall now be replaced by axial fans which are suitable for two hour operation even if the air temperature it handles reaches 250 °C. These fans will rotate automatically when fire / smoke in tunnel occur or ambient temperature of the tunnel crosses the set limit or concentration of CO2 or sub-soil temperature inside the tunnels crosses the set limit.

A work order has already been placed on an Indian subsidiary of a Japanese company for upgrading Blue Line’s stations Environmental Control Systems (ECS) and upgrading the Tunnel Ventilation System (TVS). This holding company has already commissioned ECS and TVS systems in more than one hundred underground Metro stations in Singapore Metro. Team of Japanese engineers has already visited Jatin Das Park station air conditioning plant and other areas.

Once completed, passengers will have a more comfortable riding experience in Metro Railway, Kolkata, Asia’s fifth Metro network. This upgrade with state-of-the-art technology will also ensure improved fire safety and save Rs.11 Cr annual electricity bill as well as reduce carbon footprint by 12,300 Metric Tons annually.

Team Maverick