Six days after conducting its first trial runs, Nagpur’s Maha Metro, conducted its first official trial run on 30 September, making it the fastest metro project to reach the trial stage in India. Trials were conducted on a 3.5 kilometre (km) stretch near Khapri, near the Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport on the 19 km long Line 1.
The trial run was flagged off by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and State Bank of India chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya. Fadnavis represents Nagpur South West in the Vidhan Sabha while Gadkari represents Nagpur in the Lok Sabha.
During the trial run, the train ran from the Khapri Depot to Khapri Station and then to the Airport South Station. Constructed by the Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation (Maha Metro) that is also building the Pune Metro, the 38 km line serving Maharashtra’s winter capital will see its first section thrown open for commercial operations by late 2018 or early 2019. Construction work began in November 2015 at the Khapri depot, with trial runs being flagged off 22 months later, making it the fastest in the country to reach this stage.
Maha Metro is currently also building the Pune Metro, which is scheduled to begin commercial operations in 2021.