Metro Nerve Centre Under Test

Chennai:

As Chennai Metro Rail is gearing up for its inaugural 10-Km run
between Koyambedu to Alandur by the beginning of next month, officials
are conducting trials to check the efficiency of Operation Command
Centre (OCC), the nerve centre of CMRL located in Koyambedu.

Giant screens along with workstations and images of Metro Stations on
the elevated stretch besides the location and movement of trains are
being displayed at the centre located in the administrative building
of Chennai Metro.

“We can control the movement of all te stations from here. There are a
minimum 30 cameras in each station recording the movement of commuters
as well as the station. A bigger station would have 50 to 60 cameras,”
says a metro rail official while scanning the images on the screen.

Interestingly, the OCC will be the place where the entire operation of
Metro Rail will be regulated. It is currently being manned by seven
members and controlled by a chief controller.  If fully operational it
would have a total of 10 controllers. These include two traffic
controllers, a rolling stock controller, a traction power controller,
passenger communication controller, auxillary controller, maintenance
controller, standby TVS and traction power controllers etc.

The high technology OCC centre would be the one which will schedule
the running of trains. The traffic controller would draft the
timetable and enter it into the software around midnight for the day’s
operation. This would also include the fixing of frequencies of
trains. The OCC also has the capability to operate the train under
Auto Train Operation Mode. “Currently, we are conducting the trials,”
said the official while pointing to the location of a train on the
giant screen.

The OCC also has Emergency Trip System where the train could be
brought to halt immediately depending upon speed and braking system.
“The OCC could have detected someone had fallen down which the driver
won’t have. So this mechanism would be brought into use,” said the
metro rail official.

“If there is a back out the trains AC system could keep the train cool
till 45 to 60 minutes and we have to much of a response time to
evacuate passengers,” a metro rail official said.

Interestingly, the OCC will soon be shifted to Nandanam where the new
office of Chennai Metro Rail is coming. This OCC then could be kept as
back-up. “There is also a mechanism to operate it from the stations if
the OCC experiences a failure,” said the official.

Meanwhile, the Metro Rail depot in Koyambedu is nearly ready. It has
automatic train wash plant, stabling shed with tracks to park 36
trains, pit wheel lathe to reprofile the wheels and infrastructure
shed where rescue and diesel shunting locomotives are kept.

Each train before leaving the depot would undergo inspection at
Inspection Bay Lnes before getting the certificate for operation. They
will operate till 11 pm and then will go to automatic train wash plant
and get cleaned up.