Chennai rains affect supply of bombardiers

The rains in Chennai abated two days ago, but the downpour badly affected the supply of Bombardier rakes which are part of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) II’s new local trains for the city, as the company that assembles it — Integral Coach Factory (ICF) — is located in the state.

A total of 10 of the 72 rakes have come to the city at a snail’s pace since the first one was commissioned in March of this year. Officials had then said that, as pre-decided by the railway minister, four of these rakes would be coming into the city every month, hence a minimum of 26 rakes were expected to arrive in the city in the past seven months. To add to it all, the unprecedented rain has made it hard for the officials to dispatch the eleventh rake by the first week of November and it reached the city only on November 18.

A senior official said that the ICF officials have been watching the water levels in the factory and that it would be a logistical nightmare if the rain hadn’t stopped, “If the water had gone any higher, say by another four inches, it would be so difficult to get the rakes to higher ground. So it’s a relief that the rains have finally given up and spared the officials at ICF,” said the official, on the condition of anonymity.

The rakes have been late by almost one-and-a-half year and the final push was made early this year after intense criticism by railway activists and the media. There is now an internal demand and an online petition from activists from the Central Railway.