The city was to get 238 new 12-car AC local trains under Mumbai Urban Transport Projects (MUTP)—47 under MUTP-3 and 191 under MUTP-3A. A senior official said the work on bid documents and specifications for procurement of 238 AC trains in consultation with the Ministry of Railways is underway

A crowded compartment of an AC local. Pic/Nimesh Dave

Work is also underway on a financial agreement with the Maharashtra government for the funding, since both the railways and the Maharashtra government will provide funds for MUTP. Passengers look on as an AC local train leaves CSMT. Pic/Ashish Raje

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Initially, the tenders for the new AC trains were expected to be floated in July 2022, but the plan was shelved. If all the approvals were in place and fresh tenders were floated, trains would have started arriving in Mumbai by 2024 end or early 2025. 

Commuters aboard an AC local train. File Pic/Satej Shinde

At present, Mumbai only has 14 AC local trains divided between Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR). As per official figures of the Mumbai division, WR runs 76 services with six trains and CR runs 56 services with five trains, while the remaining trains are either under maintenance or a back-up

WR recorded a ridership of over 2.01 crore from April 2022 to February 26, 2023, while CR reported a ridership of 1.25 crore. In 2019, PM Modi approved the procurement of AC local trains at a cabinet meeting. MRVC was initially unable to call tenders for the project, estimated to cost Rs 20,000 crore, due to a lack of funding from the then-state government. Later, it was delayed due to technical difficulties