Metro corridors in city to be solar-powered

If things go according to plan, all the proposed metro corridors in the city will be able to generate power for its consumption from the solar panels that would be installed on the rooftops and office buildings of the proposed stations.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) that is giving technical assistance to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has suggested installing solar panels on all the proposed metro corridors in the city.

“The installation will take care of the non-traction power requirement for the metro corridors. Similarly, the system is now used even for Versova-Ghatkopar Metro-1. The DMRC has also installed solar panels for several metro corridors in Delhi and the same can be implemented for the proposed metro corridors in Mumbai. We have suggested the same to the MMRDA and installing solar panels is a common practice nowadays,” said a DMRC official, who did not wish to be named.

The Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL) on June 7, 2016, the second anniversary of Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar (VAG) Metro-1 announced that it would install solar panels on all the 12 Metro stations and on the Metro depot located in DN Nagar for meeting Metro-1’s several power requirement. MMOPL expects that installing solar panels will allow it to meet almost 30 per cent of its total 6.9 megawatts of non-traction power requirement.

The MMRDA which is the implementing agency for the proposed metro network for the city and the metropolitan region has recently issued work orders for carrying out civil work after it completed the tendering process for the Andheri-east Dahisar-east Metro-7 corridor and is set to start work on the same post monsoon.

For, the Dahisar-DN Nagar Metro-2A corridor, the work order will be issued soon and both the metro corridors would be ready for public use by 2019. On the same lines, the MMRDA will also start work on the DN Nagar-Bandra-Mandale Metro-2B and the Wadala-Thane-Kasarvadavali corridor by the year-end.