Larsen & Toubro has announced the inauguration of Phase 1 of the Metro Express in the African of Mauritius island nation of Mauritius by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth. Designed and constructed by L&T, this Integrated Light Rail-based Urban Transit System will initially operate for 13 km from the capital city of Port Louis to Rose Hill. “Starting from a green field to the present status in a record span of two years, the Mauritius Express has been one of the fasted executed transit systems by L&T,” said SN Subrahmanyan, CEO & Managing Director, L&T, speaking at the launch in the presence of the Prime Ministers of both countries. “‘Scale and Speed’ have been the hallmark of L&T projects and our approach has been to provide a modern and distinctive solution by implementing cost-effective construction methods to enhance speed of execution with minimum disturbance to the people. This project also marks a new high in Indo-Mauritian relations that will definitely bring huge economic advantages and offer opportunities in engineering and technical skill development for the island nation,” he added. Funded by the Government of India, the Mauritius Metro features world-class rolling stock, multiple track forms for best-in-class urban design to mitigate noise and vibration, energy-efficient traction power supply systems, advanced signaling systems, a state-of-the art Operation Control Centre, simulators for rapid driver training and passenger-friendly electronic ticketing and information systems. It has several major systems sourced from top-notch vendors across the globe like Rolling Stock & Signaling Equipment sourced from CAF Spain, Substation equipment from Switzerland, Power Transformers from Italy and India, Electrical fittings from France, Rails from Russia and UK, Rail fittings from UK, Electronic Ticketing from China, Turnouts, Passenger Information System and Specialised P&M from India.“The successful launch of Phase-1 of the Mauritius Metro demonstrates L&T’s design and engineering capabilities by leveraging our global experience and establishes our credentials in the Railways business overseas,” said Rajeev Jyoti, CE, Railways Strategic Business Unit, L&T Construction. “We have been guided by the principles of constructing an optimised solution that is safe and efficient and with our workforce that touched 2,800 during peak times we have been able to achieve our objective to build a world-class transport infrastructure clocking 2.62 million safe man hours in the process.”About the project: The 26-km route will connect Cure pipe to Immigration Square in Port Louis with 19 stations, 2 of which will be state-of-the-art elevated stations. The alignment will connect three major bus interchanges enabling a multimodal urban transit solution. The scope of the project involves the construction of viaducts and bridges, track works (with substantial ballastless tracks including plinth, embedded and grass tracks), and integration with road traffic through advanced signaling systems, procurement of rolling stock from world majors in LRT (Light Rail Transit) and construction of depots along with maintenance equipment.