Central Rly moots ₹21,021-cr safety scheme for Mumbai suburban rail

With about 10 people dying and an equal number getting grievously injured on the Central Railway tracks in Mumbai every day, the zonal railway has suggested an overall investment of ₹ 21,021 crore to convert Mumbai’s suburban railways into metro-like services.

This will increase the frequency of trains and reduce the waiting time to two minutes, thereby bringing down the crowd on trains.

According to a draft report submitted by the Central Railways to the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC), of the total amount, ₹10,500 crore will be spent on 150 new train sets.

This is a long-term plan and its implementation will depend on fund availability for the project. The Central Railway has only ₹ 524 crore as sanctioned project.

The PAC had visited the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus of Mumbai and interacted with the officials of Central Railways and other Railway Ministry officials on improving the passenger amenities. The panel is preparing a report on the modernisation of railway stations.

Earlier, the members visited the Old Delhi and New Delhi Railway stations to study the condition of the stations.

The draft shared by the Railways proposes creation of platforms and stabling lines, which are parking spaces for trains, in a self-financing mode, as it expects the local government to provide land for developing such facilities. This will help create 437 km of metro-like corridors for the city.

Additionally, the Maharashtra government can spend on foot overbridges and rail overbridges, it said.

In the short run, the Central Railway proposes to remove 24 seats from some coaches so that space for another 224 standing commuters can be created – a move, which will prevent people from hanging on the doors.

Additionally, in order to lower the time and energy spent on maintenance, Central Railway has pushed its case for being allocated coaches manufactured by Siemens. It is easier to deal with maintenance of one type of train coach rather than with multiple types of coaches, the draft report said.

Increasing the length of trains to 15 coaches from 12 and doubling the trains by communications-based train control system is another step that will have to be taken for improving services for Mumbai.

Foot overbrides funded by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is another step required to improve the safety record and services of the suburban trains.

It also says that suburban traffic on Western Railway is decreasing while that on Central Railways is increasing due to cheaper housing complexes on the route.

While investments in cab signalling can start later, converting coaches to air-conditioned ones with door closers has to start at the earliest. It has an offer from Siemens which can design coaches compatible with Central Railways’ needs at a cost of about ₹ 40 crore for a train set of 12. This can be processed in the Swiss Challenge method, inviting bids from other vendors too.