Mumbai's air-conditioned local train to start from January 2018

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said Mumbai's air-conditioned local train will run from January 2018. The air-conditioned local train that arrived in Mumbai more than a year ago has been facing delays due to several rounds of tests and trials and has missed several deadlines and announcement dates.

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The train that is capable of running at 110kmph has raised hopes of Mumbaikars and they have been keenly awaiting its launch. It has been manufactured by Integral Coach Factory in Chennai with electrical equipment from Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). Even the existing BHEL EMU local trains that run in Mumbai have been leading to problems on the line due to several failures, raising a doubt on the fitness of the AC local train.

With a carrying capacity of about 6,000 passengers, the train was initially supposed to run on Central Railway, but ran into problems due to low height of bridges there and was then shifted to Western Railway in May 2017. The WR then begun trials and was supposed to run earlier this year but suffered snags and software issues which were taken up with the manufacturer.

Senior railway officials told mid-day on Thursday that the train is under the process of undergoing trials with the team of the Indian Railways' Research, Development and Standards' Organisation (RDSO) and will put in public use only these are over, not before December 2017, tentatively. This syncs with the January 2017 announcement date given by the Railway Minister.

As per the fare chart designed by the Western Railway, the AC local train is proposed to run between Churchgate and Borivli with a separate fare structure. While the First class one-time ticket between Churchgate and Borivli will be Rs 140, that between Churchgate and Andheri would be Rs 105 and till Bandra Rs 70.The monthly pass between Churchgate and Borivli will be about Rs 1400 and that between Churchgate-Andheri about Rs 1050 and that between Churchgate Bandra about Rs 700.

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