Mumbai: The Western Railway (WR) will introduce a first-of-its-kind fully vestibuled underslung motor-equipped air-conditioned local train next month.
All the 12 coaches of the train will be internally connected with vestibule, which commuters can use to walk from one coach to another. The propulsion system of the train will be placed in the underslung of the coaches.
The WR authorities have planned to introduce 238 such customised locals in the years to come.
“A vestibule local is waiting for some last-minute permissions at the Mumbai Central station, which will be operational on the WR line soon. The highlight of this train is the additional space and solar panels on the rooftop of one of the coaches on an experimental basis. The success of this train will help fast track the long-term plan to convert the entire fleet of Mumbai locals into AC locals,” a railway official from WR said.
On an experimental basis, one coach of this AC local is equipped with flexible lightweight solar panels that are capable of generating 3.6KW of electricity, which will be used for powering lights and fans in the train.
These 238 customised AC local trains will have inbuilt infotainment and CCTV cameras with better acceleration. Of them 47 will be under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) 3 and 191 under the MUTP 3A plans of the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC).
There is a new set of guidelines and regulatory approvals issued by the Railways for these trains. The trains will have all electrical equipment underslung near the wheels enabling more commuters to be ferried than regular trains. In the existing AC local trains, only six coaches connect internally, while in the new train all 12 coaches will be connected internally.
The new set of AC local trains will also include a fire detection system. The motorman or guard will have entry or exit provision from the passenger area. The MRVC has appointed consultants to strategise gradual migration of the existing fleet to AC locals without any changes in the existing suburban time table in the long run.