Railway Board member (Mechanical), Hemant Kumar has hinted that they are yet to receive a positive reply from the Western Railway (WR) about the closed-door experiment being conducted.
Mr Kumar, who was a part of a panel discussion on bringing in private companies into the railways at the Make In India venue, said it is not difficult to alter two-three trains to have closed doors but they are yet to receive word from WR. “The (railway) board has told WR they can make changes in two to three rakes of the 72 Bombardier rakes that are coming into the city in phases, we are waiting for their reply. We will have to get the doors with slits for air to pass unlike the air-conditioned train and the get the electricals in the place for the door to shut and open, which is not extremely difficult since we are still assembling them,” he said.
WR has been getting the Bombardier-make brand new trains since last year but has received only 16 of them until now. As a result, Railway Board members have asked the WR to send their verdict before it is too late and the last train is assembled. Mr Kumar was also general manager of WR only a year ago, after which the current general manager G.C. Agarwal took the full charge in July 2015.
Expressing surprise Mumbaikars are considering the closed-door experiment, Mr Kumar added, “When I was the general manager the commuter was so anti-closed-door, but this change in psyche that a little discomfort and sweating is better than death did surprise me”. According to sources within WR the experiment has not gone as well as the officials had hoped for. “We have now ended the experiment of the closed-doors on WR and the first-class women compartments in the one train that had been fitted on the one train has been removed,” said an official on the condition of anonymity.
The major grouse against the closed-door was that it would not open immediately after it halted on the platform or did not open at all.
Bullet train in 2.5 years Railway Board’s infrastructure advisor Girish Pillai has said the construction work related to the high speed bullet train from Mumbai to Ahmedabad will begin in two to two-and-half-years and that the project in itself will be completed by 2023. “As we all know JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) is going to be our partner in this venture and we believe the construction for the project will begin in two to two-and-a-half years and that the rolling stock will be manufactured in India,” he said. Mr Pillai has also said station development in the state will be looked into and that they expect funding for the same from non-governmental organisations, foreign companies and even more. City stations like Bandra and Mumbai Central were dropped after the ministers proposed a fresh draft of 400 stations across the country.
