Mumbai: Western Railway (WR) has set a letter to the Railway Board in Delhi on January 2, 2017, asking that it be given the air-conditioned train. This is a huge step as the train has been lying unused since its arrivnal in May 2016 with Central Railway (CR) which has been unable to resolve technical issues.
The Asian Age was the first to report in its edition published on December 10, 2016, that CR had requested WR to take charge of the air-conditioned local. A senior WR official on condition of anonymity said, “Until now, WR officers were discussing on what basis we could send this letter to the board because if the board asked us what made us qualified to run the train, we needed to have answers. “The answer is that we have calculated the vertical clearance needed and the electrical issues that need to be resolved so that we can assure them that the train will run at least between Dadar and Virar,” the official said.
Apparently, WR officials want to ensure that the first lot of AC trains run on WR only. “According to protocol when order for the first lot of air-conditioned trains will be placed based on the performance of this one, those trains will come to WR because of the pain taken to work out bugs and run it,” the official added.
The AC train has been kept at Kurla car shed since its arrival in the city; the electrical department has been trying to work out kinks found in the train’s software.
