Lucknow's first metro rail to be launched on Tuesday

Lucknow: Nine months after the trial run was flagged of by the then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Lucknow will get the first phase of its metro rail running tomorrow. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will inaugurate the services. Rajnath Singh is the MP from Lucknow in the Lok Sabha. 

The services will be thrown open for the public from September 6. Trains will run between 6 am and 10 pm. The maximum fare on the current stretch is thirty rupees. 

Phase 1 of the Lucknow Metro Rail projects covers a distance of 8.5 kilometers from Charbagh (near Lucknow’s main railway station) to Transport Nagar. It is part of a larger north-south corridor which ,when completed in 2019, will run from the Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport in Amausi to Munshipulia. 

Smart Cities, Mass Transport 

As part of its urban development drive, the central government is encouraging cities with more than two million people to develop mass transit systems. With around 3.4 million calling the city their home, Lucknow is one of the 50 cities slated to get a modern metro rail system. The Lucknow Metro project features under the Sugam initiative, part of Lucknow’s smart city plan, aimed at traffic decongestion through smart mobility solutions.

Some of these solutions are powered by multinationals who are now increasingly using India as a production hub. Encouraged by the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, new metro networks are serving as a catalyst for global firms to undertake innovations in design and engineering solutions. 

By using the latest global technology made in India - from power supplies and distribution to SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system used to monitor and control the metro network - multinationals are bringing the best of global technology and also supporting local manufacturing. 

One of the key partners and equipment suppliers in  the Lucknow Metro ABB says it is proud to bring cleaner, greener solution and be a part of this development journey. 

The metro’s control room  from where the power distribution network and substation automation can be remotely monitored uses ABB’s MicroSCADA  solution. The system identifies and alerts the operator of any fault conditions and preempting downtime and improving efficiency of metro operations. The company also installed its thousandth traction  transformer as part of the power solutions for the metro project in this historic city. Interestingly, the transformer was made as the multinational’s Vadodara facility. 

“We are pleased that our historic 1,000th milestone has coincided with a project which expands the horizon of mobility options in this historic city. We would like to thank all our partners and customers for this milestone. Lucknow is a vibrant city, with urbanization taking place at a rapid pace. The metro rail project will play a key role in helping the city step up and modernize its transportation system while making it more sustainable,” said Sanjeev Sharma, Managing Director, ABB India. “ABB’s proven, best-in-class technologies which have been deployed in eight operational metro projects in the country will help to create a sustainable infrastructure landscape as Lucknow makes the transition into a smart city.”