BHEL rakes finally get CR’s attention

The Central Railway (CR) has finally worked on its troublesome five Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL) rakes, one of which had derailed between Ambivali and Titwala on March 21 last year, killing 19-year-old Dhaval Lodiya.

The CR has changed the circuitry that runs throughout the train and particularly the parts called ‘connectors’ that relay the commands when the motorman switches on the equipment. Officials had defended that the rake that derailed in 2014 was within the periodic overhaul (complete overhaul of a train done every 19 months). However, the train’s electrics kept going off due to short circuits, over-heating of motors and breaking of pantographs etc.

The CR earlier had nine BHEL trains, but four of them were scrapped and the remaining five are being revived. Divisional railway manager, Amitabh Ojha said that at least two of the rakes will be out and running in the coming week. “The electricals of two of the train were redone in Sanpada car-shed and of the other two in Kalyan. The trains will be out on the line by the next week the remaining one train too is being worked upon,” said Mr Ojha.

The CR had got the permission to change the electricals back in July itself and the officials have been working on them since. The electricals have been changed with materials procured from contractors. This has been the first time that the CR has had to change the electricals of the train due to the complete deterioration of the rakes.

This comes on the heels of Mr Ojha asking all the loco-sheds who maintain trains, that is, Kalyan, Sanpada and Kalwa for local trains and Tilak Nagar shed for diesel-engines to give a weekly update of every problem and take action on the same, after the battery of one of the local trains scraped the Byculla platform last week.