Harbour Line capacity hike delayed again

The long-awaited increase in the capacity of the Harbour Line from the current nine-coach to 12-coach is set to be delayed again as the latest deadline of December 2015 has been pushed to March 2016.

The railways has already missed several deadlines for increasing the Harbour Line’s capacity.

Railway Board Member (Electrical) Navin Tandon, who visited both Central and Western Railway on Monday, said the Harbour Line will see the long-awaited 12-coach trains and conversion from Direct Current (DC) and Alternate Current (AC) around the same time in March of next year.

After meeting with Central Railway (CR) officials Tandon said Harbour would grow by “huge leaps” after March when both these projects are expected to be finished. “I am more than positive that Harbour Line will finish the conversion from DC to AC and we expect that our plan for adding three coaches to the current nine-coaches will happen around the same time,” said Mr Tandon.

Tandon said unlike the mainline conversion from 1,500 volts DC to 25,000 volts AC, the Harbour Line does not seem to have any problem.

“On mainline, problems like low bridges were there but from what the officials have told me Harbour conversion to AC will be smooth.

“The other issue of increasing Harbour’s capacity by making it 12–coach has small issues that are to be resolved, but it will be done soon,” he added.

The CR had converted its mainline from DC to AC on June 9 this year but the conversion was followed by a series of mishaps like breaking down of engines, snapping of overhead wires and the pantograph being entangled. In fact, services on the mainline were being run without any rakes for back up in case of failure for a month.