Saturday, May 18, 2024 | Last Update : 02:12 PM IST
AC trains to get faster with modified rakes
City to get 47 AC locals, of which 4 will come by 2019 and the remaining 43 by 2020.
Mumbai: Air-conditioner (AC) train rides are set to get faster as 47 new AC locals will have a higher carrying capacity and faster acceleration, a senior railway official has said. The city will get four AC locals by 2019 and the remaining 43 will come by 2020. Railway minister Piyush Goyal held a review meeting of various Mumbai projects including the AC locals with officials of Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) officials on Friday at Mumbai Central.
A senior WR official said, “The railway minister inquired about the AC locals. The general manager informed that the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) floated a tender for 47 AC locals. The first batch of the AC trains will arrive in the financial year 2019-2020. The remaining rakes will be come up by 2020.”
The official said, “The existing AC rakes have an acceleration of 0.54m/sec2 but new rakes will have an acceleration of 0.80 m/sec2. The time, which was lost in opening and closing of the doors, will be covered up through this exercise.”
The journeys will be faster owing to modifications in the AC rake. At present, each rake has three motor coaches, but there will be motors after every two coaches in the new rake. Power equipment will also be fitted underslung (below the footboard), allowing for the accommodation of more passengers.
Officials said that the carrying capacity of each rake would be increased by 300 as per the world standard but 500 passengers would travel in Mumbai.
Mr Goyal also launched a ‘Rail Heritage Digitisation Project’ of Indian Railways in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture through video-conferencing. The project can be accessed through link: “https://artsandculture.google.com/project/indian-railways”. The project is a landmark effort, the first of its kind in this part of the globe to showcase country’s rail heritage to a national and international audience in an online story-telling platform.
The railway minister also directed that all the stations of Mumbai should be equipped with Wi-Fi. In addition to this, he also asked railway officials to play soft ambient music at stations, which would be soothing to the ears of the passengers.
Minister of Railways said that both railways have done tremendous work during the last three four years. He also advised that the mail/express trains which have pantry cars should be converted to LHB rakes on priority. He also said that all road over bridges (ROBs) should have one limited height subway for pedestrians, cattle, etc to cross to the other side of the railway track.
