AC trains should fit in: Rlys

Mumbai: “Avoid repeating the mistakes of the first air-conditioned train,” said the Central and Western Railways to the Railway Board in Delhi, after the debacle of the first air-conditioned train. Both the railways have submitted a what-not-to-do list to the board after they felt the latter had procured the first AC train without understanding the peculiarities of CR and WR lines, like the height of the rail over-bridges (ROB) and the need of a state-of-the-art software that’s sensitive to manual interference.

This comes after Union minister Suresh Prabhu’s promise that the new 67 trains under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) III, would all be air-conditioned and that it would improve the otherwise intimidating travel experience of traveling in a Mumbai local.

The CR officials have asked for decreasing the height of the coaches or reducing the diameter of the wheels within safety parameters to get rid of the possibility of the train hitting an ROB.

Explaining why these recommendations are important, an official said, “We had the same problem with the Han-cock bridge, when the CR was shifting from the old direct current of 1,500 volts to alternate current of 25,000 volts. In fact, not just Hancock, but all the bridges were too low for such a high voltage to pass through and for the same reason with the new AC trains too, we need the bridges to be a little higher or the coaches to be a little shorter.”

Another recommendation is that the software used in the AC trains should be highly responsive in situations like trespassing and water-logging on the tracks where manual interference by the motorman is required.

The officials have also asked the AC unit to be placed at the side of the coach instead of being on the top of the coach.

Another official said, “Although we have sent in the specifications but had they asked us for these before, it would have saved us from a lot of unnecessary work.”

Anil Saxena, the ADGPR of Railways, said, “We have got the recommendations from both the CR and WR and all these issues will surely be ironed out before we decide on what kind of rolling stock to procure for Mumbai.”

“We will make sure that the new trains will run without any glitch whatsoever,” he added.