Chennai Metro Rail (CMRL) will run around 25 percent of the trains on lease on three corridors of Phase-II which will save time and cost on procurement, operation and maintenance. This will be the first time a Metro rail system will be trying out the model in the country.
Construction of tunnels along the 52 km priority corridor is expected to begin later in 2020 and the line is likely to be ready in five years. CMRL will follow a wet-lease model, where the company that leases out the trains will also operate and maintain them. The train will come with crew and maintenance staff. Once it finishes floating tenders for civil work.
CMRL will start calling tenders for systems which include trains. CMRL will procure trains from Japan for the corridor from Madhavaram to Sholinganallur and Madhavaram to CMBT, as per conditions laid out by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is partly funding construction of the stretch. Trains for the remaining stretches could be hired and operated from private companies.
A few international companies with help from financial firms are involved in procuring trains from manufacturers and leasing them out to Metro rail and subways networks abroad. There will be three types of rolling stock -- trains from Japan, trains through international competitive bidding and through wet-lease model.
Operating trains on lease means CMRL will only monitor them. According to the detailed project report (DPR) for Phase-II, it will initially require 138 trains to cater to an estimated daily ridership of 19.2 lakh.