21 December,2021 07:42 AM IST | Mumbai | Rajendra B. Aklekar
Work in progress on the Diva-Thane rail corridor which is supposed to be open by mid-January or early February next year. File pic
Central Railway's plan to introduce more AC trains on its lines seems to have ended before it started. Even as the new 9.5-km stretch of Diva-Thane rail corridor inches towards completion, making space for 80-100 additional suburban services, CR does not have enough AC local trains left.
CR chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar said two more AC trains were scheduled to arrive earlier, but they have not yet. CR has a total of four AC trains, of which three have been introduced on the main, trans-harbour and harbour lines. The one AC train that is left can run 10-12 services a day at the most, and once operational CR will not have any back-up AC train.
At present there are 38 AC train services on CR. Of this, 10 were introduced on the main line earlier on December 17, 2020. The first set of AC train services were introduced on the trans-harbour line on January 30, 2020 and the number of services currently stands at 16. The harbour line has 12 AC train services which were introduced on a replacement basis on December 1, 2021.
Once the new Diva-Thane line is commissioned around mid-January or early February next year, it can potentially run 80 to 100 services. Sources said ideally there should have been better planning and long-term vision behind the move. "CR should have focused on one line only instead of trying to run one AC train each on all corridors.
Knowing that Thane-Diva would require AC trains, the planning should have been to save AC rakes for the new line," said Subhash Gupta, a passenger association member.
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"The problem is that once regular trains are introduced and people get used to it, railways cannot withdraw non-AC local trains and replace them with AC ones due to commuter objections and protest. Hence, the best way is to introduce AC services on the new line at this stage itself to encourage commuters to take them," he said.
