Snag-hit Metro Railway is aiming to go from sloppy to smart in 10 months, fast-tracking Rs 1,000 crore worth of projects to give commuters faster, safer rides in air-conditioned comfort by next Puja.

“Some of our projects got delayed because of technical reasons but most of these should be completed by Puja 2010,” revealed V.N. Tripathi, who completed his assignment as general manager of Metro Railway last Friday.

The Railway Board has sanctioned Rs 50 crore to replace Metro’s block signalling system with an automatic one designed to help improve peak-hour frequency from six to four minutes.

“The global tender for the project will be floated within a week,” said Tripathi, who has taken over as the Eastern Railway general manager.

Metro Railway intends increasing the peak-hour frequency of trains to two minutes — from six minutes now — once more rakes are pressed into service. “The new signalling system will be equipped to handle trains at two-minute intervals,” Tripathi said.

Under the block signalling system, signals are set up at a distance of one to two kilometres. After a train leaves Tollygunge for Dum Dum, it has to travel 180 metres beyond the third station, Kalighat, for another train to start.

As soon as a train crosses the 180-metre mark beyond the designated station a message automatically goes to the panel operator, who then gives the green signal to the second train. But the manual system prevents Metro Railway from reducing the interval between trains to less than six minutes.

Once the new system is implemented, multiple signals between two stations will narrow the gap between trains and enable higher frequency.

But will speed compromise safety?

“An anti-collision device will be attached to each rake to prevent accidents. The equipment will make a train stop automatically even if the driver does not stop at a particular signal,” an official said.

A Metro rake presently runs at 55km per hour on an average. The authorities are planning to increase it to 65km per hour.

A team from the Lucknow-based Research Designs and Standards Organisation, which operates under the railway ministry, will arrive in the city soon to conduct safety trials.

“Our rakes have the capacity to run at 80km per hour but various other factors determine the operational speed. Experts need to look at all aspects, including track capacity, before giving the green signal,” said Tripathi.

If the automatic signalling system works as planned, Garia Bazar (Kavi Nazrul) to Dum Dum will be covered in 36 minutes, five minutes less than the average time taken by a train at present.

New coaches are scheduled to start rolling out of the factory by March 2010. “Production at the Integral Coach Factory was delayed by six months because of design discrepancies,” said an official.

Thirteen rakes will be added to the 18 that are doing duty now. The Railway Board recently sanctioned 14 more rakes, production of which will start soon. “Once all the rakes arrive, 11 of the old rakes will be discarded,” the official added.

Metro is spending Rs 30 crore on each rake and another Rs 8 crore each on converting the old ones into air-conditioned coaches.

The proposed smartcard system to replace paper tickets will be in place within eight months, a source said.

A series of hiccups since the inauguration of the Tollygunge-Garia Bazar southern extension in August had marred Metro’s reputation as the city’s transport lifeline.