GUANGZHOU, China, Dec. 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On November 25, Hitachi Elevator (China) Co., Ltd., as part of a consortium, won the bid for the procurement, installation, operation and maintenance of the escalators and elevators for a series of new metro lines as well as extensions to existing lines serving the Guangzhou area. It is the largest escalator and elevator procurement project by value for new metro lines in Guangzhou, and the first project where several of the lines teamed up to collectively invite the tenders.
According to the latest statistics from the Guangzhou Municipal Transportation Bureau, Guangzhou has 13 new metro lines under construction including the completion of lines 11 and 18 as well as an extension (Phase II) to line 13. These lines, when completed, will span 345 km. The sum of the new metro construction in process at the moment in Guangzhou is more than has ever taken place in any city in China at any time in history. Hitachi Elevator will be providing 1,662 units of escalators for lines 7 (Phase II), 10, 11, 14 (Phase II) and 18, as well as a 2-year warranty after the acceptance of escalators in addition to a 15-year contract for maintenance services.
To date, Hitachi Elevator has provided more than 1,800 units of escalators to Guangzhou Metro. Hitachi Elevator was one of the earliest vendors to supply both equipment and after-sales services to the authority, having entered into business with them in 1997. It was 22 years ago that the elevator maker provided the first batch of conveyances to Guangzhou Metro for their line 1, and the relationship between the two parties has continued to grow ever since. Currently, Hitachi Elevator's maintenance service covers 163 stations, with a staff of more than 200 assuring the daily maintenance of elevators and escalators along the authority's many metro lines.
Since the beginning of the year, Guangzhou has topped all other Chinese cities with metro lines in operation in terms of system-wide load intensity. On the eve of China's National Day, celebrated annually on October 1, the city's metro system clocked more than 11 million rides within a single day, breaking the previous record it had set some 20 days earlier, a few days before the start of Mid-Autumn Festival. Given that Guangzhou's escalators must respond to high passenger throughput, high load and maximum uptimes required by the rail transit systems, Hitachi's public transportation heavy-duty escalators have been enhanced through the introduction of leading technologies, including multi-scenario adaptability, comprehensive anti-pinch technology, a safety system that prevents unexpected sharp objects from becoming stuck in an escalator gap, the intelligent diagnostic technology that fully monitors and analyzes the escalators' operational state, interconnectivity and unanticipated risks, providing passengers with a safe and convenient travel experience in subway stations where passenger traffic can quickly mount at rush hour and during popular events.
Hitachi Elevator has also worked with the Guangzhou Metro National Engineering Laboratory to develop an escalator safety monitoring platform, which was designed for providing escalators installed in metro stations with access to a monitoring system in a move to ensure passenger safety when traffic loads rise beyond expectations.
In addition to Guangzhou, Hitachi Elevator has provided over 7,000 units of escalators to metro and light rail lines in 22 Chinese cities, including the major metropolises of Shanghai, Shenzhen and Kunming. As China's urban rail transit sector continues its rapid growth, Hitachi Elevator will be on hand to provide rail transit construction projects across the country with a wide spectrum of public transportation solutions with the aim of facilitating China's transition towards an intelligent rail transit service system.
