Mumbai Will Have To Wait For Local Trains Running 130 Kmph, Rs 60 Crore Project On Halt As Technical Issues Appear

The Railways administration has put the brakes on its endeavour to purchase high-speed rakes, which can run at speed of 130kmph, as trials done were unsatisfactory.

S L SHANTH KUMAR for BCCL

For the record,?officials said that technical defects were detected during the trials. However, they refused to elaborate on the same.

The bogies from Siemens were to be procured under the Rs 4,500 crore Mumbai Urban Transport Project-I. The total cost of purchasing 54 bogies, which would be fitted on four trains, was estimated to be Rs 60 crore.

"We had entered into a contract with Siemens to purchase the bogies that can clock in 130 kmph. However, the trials were unsuccessful and hence the contract will be terminated," said Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation Ltd (MRVC) chairman and managing director Prabhat Sahai.

One of the rakes with the newly designed bogies arrived in 2011, but the same could no be inducted into the suburban system, either on Western Ra ilway or Central Railway as trials remained inconclusive. At the time of signing the deal, Railways had claimed that commuters would have a more comfortable ride.

The older rakes have oil-filled dampers which sometimes leak and have to be refilled each time the train goes for an overhaul.

The Railways said that all this would be done away with after the bolster-less bogies were introduced.

"Although the rakes have the potential to run at 130 kmph, the train would not ha ve clocked this speed ever on CR up to Kalyan and on WR beyond Mira Road because of small intervals between sta tions," said a WR official.

"We have to factor the speed of the train that precedes the high-speed train. How can the modified train run at a higher speed when the one ahead can clock in only 100 to 110 kmph?" he said.