Thales group firms bag contracts for metro rail project

Some of the group companies of French conglomerate Thales group bagged contracts for signalling and train control, and communication systems for Hyderabad metro rail project.

While the contract for signalling is bagged by Thales Canada along with Thales India, that for communication is secured by Thales Portugal along with Thales India.

It is learnt that signalling and train control involves advanced communication-based train control system technology, a proven driverless technology with low operating, energy and maintenance costs.

The communication system includes a secured and reliable mobile communication and is a modern technology based on gigabit Ethernet IP backbone on optical fibre cable, being used for the first time for Metro in India.

With this, L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) is said to have awarded almost all the major contracts for the Rs 16,000-crore metro project. Now only a couple of smaller packages are remaining for awarding.

The company plans to accelerate further the pace of the work to complete the 72-km long three-corridor project by 2017 as scheduled. Other players who bid included Siemens, Invensis and Bombardier.

In September, the company had awarded the rolling stock contract worth Rs 1,800-crore to Hyundai Rotem company. The value of the two new contracts will be decided based on the actual system requirement on the ground.