Chennai Metro: ABB to provide safe tunnel ventilation to travellers – Mint

The news comes amid Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inauguration of the Chennai Metro Rail Phase-I extension project, which has been completed at a cost of ₹3,770 crore.

The 9.05 km long extension will link north Chennai with the Airport and Central Railway Station and will allow passengers to travel between these two destinations in a time span of about one hour.

ABB solutions are part of this fourth largest metro system in India with the supply of ACH580 and ACS880 active front end drives to support the metro line’s ventilation system and platform cooling. “These drives are a part of ABB’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) offering designed to meet the highest level of safety, reliability and energy efficiency requirements,” the company said in a statement.

“This is yet another significant milestone for ABB in contributing to India’s booming infrastructure and we are proud to be associated with yet another metro rail project in India,” said Sanjeev Arora, President, Motion Business, ABB India Ltd adding, “Spotlight on ‘Make in India’ initiative is back in the wake of a pandemic that disrupted supply chains.”

ABB said that its drives are used together with electric motors for the effective control of tunnel ventilation fans. They are integral in the operation of advanced air exchange systems in the stations and tunnels, ensuring passengers’ comfort and saving energy in normal operation as well as contributing in safe evacuation, smoke extract and fire fighting in case of emergency.

The dedicated voltage boost feature drives addresses voltage-drop issues caused by long cables in the tunnel network. With this feature, fans are always able to provide a nominal airflow without a need for any external equipment to compensate for voltage drop.

Moreover, the ‘fireman’s override’ feature allows VSDs on smoke extraction and pressurization fans to maintain safe escape routes for the passengers, ignoring non-critical faults and warnings e.g. due to too high temperature. In the event of a fire, this mode is usually triggered with a special key at the fireman’s control station, the company further stated.

Furthermore, ABB India has partnered with Sterling Wilson to provide our HVAC solutions for the Chennai metro project. The 10.8 kilometre Chenani-Nashri tunnel in Jammu & Kashmir is the longest highway tunnel in Asia, featuring ABB ventilation control system. Current operational metro lines in Kochi and Bengaluru use the support of ABB solutions.

Earlier, mobility services provider Ola announced that it has partnered with ABB, a Swedish-Swiss robotics and automation firm, for its “mega-factory” in India which is expected to roll out electric scooters in the coming months.