The Indian Railways is planning to convert all local trains on Mumbai’s suburban train network to air-conditioned (AC) trains.
On Tuesday, the Railway Board which is the apex body of all zonal railways has taken this decision after consulting Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation(MRVC), Central and Western Railway officials.
Fare Reduction For Local Trains
Apart from this, the fares of the local trains are also likely to be reduced and will be based on the fare structure of metros.
Also, the plans to run semi-AC local trains (in which a few AC coaches were to be attached to local trains in addition to current first and second-class coaches) are on hold by the railway ministry, according to sources.
Procurement Of AC Trains
The Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), MRVC, Ravi Agarwal said, “We will be procuring all fully AC local trains for the Mumbai suburban railway network under the Mumbai Urban Transport Projects (MUTP),”.
In the coming days, the MRVC will be buying 283 new AC local trains.
The procurement of AC local trains has already got approval from Railway Ministry.
However, the time frame for the same is not decided yet, according to the Railway officials.
For the fare, the Railway Board is looking at the fare structure of metros run in Delhi and Mumbai.
The official said, “The fare structure of the suburban AC local trains will be based on metro fare structure by Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority(MMRDA) or the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). The MRVC had suggested the fare structure of AC local trains on par with metro fares in Mumbai and Delhi,”.
Semi AC Locals Put On Hold
Reportedly, the plan for semi AC local train of the railways has also been put on hold.
The reason being, “The implementation of the semi AC local trains involves a lot of technicalities and there are chances that it cannot be feasible. There was a discussion with the railway ministry and the project was put on hold.” according to a senior official.
As per a recent survey taken by Central and Western Railway, passengers had asked for a reduction in the fares of the AC local train.
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