Express News Service By

BENGALURU:Pulled by a battery-operated loco, a Metro train successfully completed its journey through the remaining 3.8-km stretch of the underground tunnel. The stretch was not covered in its maiden run on March 12.

With the successful transportation of the train to Magadi Station, the Metro is now all set to conduct trials on the elevated stretch of the East-West corridor (Reach 2) from Mysore Road to Magadi Road.

The train, which began its journey from Cubbon Park station on Sunday morning with nearly 50 Metro officials on board, reached Magadi Road station at 6.45 pm, completing a successful run. “No difficulties were encountered,” said U A Vasant Rao, General Manager (Finance) and Chief Public Relations Officer, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL).

“The train will begin its trial run between Mysore Road and Magadi Road in a day or two,” he added.

Speaking about the run, BMRCL Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola said the train ran at a slow pace along the tunnel on Friday and Saturday in preparation for the final run on Sunday. “Since we made use of a battery-operated loco, we had to charge it at various points midway during the last two days. We had to stop many times to carry out small adjustment works,” he said.

The 1-km distance between M G Road Station and Cubbon Park station was completed earlier and with the completion of the run today, a Metro train has now successfully traversed the entire underground tunnel from M G Road to Magadi Road.

This marks a major step for Namma Metro in inching towards completing Reach-2. Director of Rolling Stock, Operation and Maintenance, N M Dhoke, told Express during the maiden run that all infrastructure and tracks from Magadi Road station to Mysore Road station were completed a few months ago. “The only problem was that a train had to be transported to Magadi Road Station to carry out the trial run.”

Trial runs on Reach-2 will be conducted within the next three months and BMRCL is likely to begin operations by mid-June.

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