According to latest reports, all local trains on Mumbai’s suburban train network will now be converted to air-conditioned (AC) trains.
This decision was taken by the Railway Board on Tuesday, October 12, after consulting Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation(MRVC), both Central and Western Railway officials.
All fully AC local trains for the Mumbai suburban railway network will be procured under the Mumbai Urban Transport Projects (MUTP).
As per accounts, the MRVC will be buying 283 new AC local trains in the coming days.
A railway official said that the ministry has given its approval for the procurement of AC local trains but the time-frame for the same has not been decided yet.
Mumbai has nine AC trains running on a suburban network at present. However, the response from the commuters is lukewarm due to fare which is higher even than first-class coaches and poor frequency of trains. Therefore, the Railway Board is now planning to convert the entire fleet of trains into AC trains.
Moreover, it has come to light that the fares of the local trains are likely reduce and will be based on the fare structure of metros. Passengers had asked for a reduction in the fares of the AC local train.
The Central and Western Railway has recently undertaken a passenger survey on the AC local trains and had submitted the response from commuters to the railway ministry.
In addition, the railway ministry has also put the plans to run semi-AC local trains, which will include a few AC coaches attached to local trains in addition to current first and second class coaches, on hold, reports stated.
The implementation of the semi AC local trains involves a lot of technicalities and there are chances that it cannot be feasible. There was a discussion with the railway ministry and the project was put on hold, said a senior official.
Mumbai got its first suburban AC local train on the Western Railway on December 25, 2017. The train service is operational between Churchgate and Virar railway stations.
Share
Tweet
