India's top engineering and construction firm Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has announced the opening of Phase One of the Metro Express in Mauritius. 

 

Designed and constructed by L&T, this Integrated Light Rail-based Urban Transit System will initially operate for 13 km from the capital city of Port Louis to Rose Hill.

 

The inauguration was held in the presence of the visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth. 

 

On thenew integrated light rail-based Urban Transit System, L&T said it's a 26-km route that will connect Curepipe to Immigration Square in Port Louis with 19 stations, 2 of which will be state-of-the-art elevated stations. 

 

The alignment will connect three major bus interchanges enabling a multimodal urban transit solution, it stated. 

 

The scope of work includes the construction of viaducts and bridges, track works (with substantial ballastless tracks including plinth, embedded and grass tracks), and integration with road traffic through advanced signaling systems, procurement of rolling stock from world majors in LRT (Light Rail Transit) and construction of depots along with maintenance equipment.

 

Speaking at the launch, CEO and Managing Director SN Subrahmanyan said: "Starting from a green field to the present status in a record span of two years, the Mauritius Express has been one of the fasted executed transit systems by L&T."

 

"The 'Scale and Speed' have been the hallmarks of L&T projects and our approach has been to provide a modern and distinctive solution by implementing cost-effective construction methods to enhance speed of execution with minimum disturbance to the people," stated Subrahmanyan in the presence of the Premiers of both countries. 

 

"This project also marks a new high in Indo-Mauritian relations that will definitely bring huge economic advantages and offer opportunities in engineering and technical skill development for the island nation," he added.

 

It has several major systems sourced from top-notch vendors across the globe like Rolling Stock & Signaling Equipment sourced from CAF Spain, Substation equipment from Switzerland, Power Transformers from Italy and India, Electrical fittings from France, Rails from Russia and UK, Rail fittings from UK, Electronic Ticketing from China, Turnouts, Passenger Information System and Specialized P&M from India.

 

Rajeev Jyoti, CE, Railways Strategic Business Unit, L&T Construction, said: "The successful launch of Phase One of the Mauritius Metro demonstrates L&T’s design and engineering capabilities by leveraging our global experience and establishes our credentials in the Railways business overseas."

 

"We have been guided by the principles of constructing an optimized solution that is safe and efficient and with our work force that touched 2,800 during peak times we have been able to achieve our objective to build a world-class transport infrastructure clocking 2.62 million safe man hours in the process," he added.-TradeArabia News Service