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CR commuters will get no relief from rickety trains
MUMBAI: Commuters of Central Railways (CR) will have to continue travelling in rickety trains for some more time.
HT PHOTO
Most of the DC trains under Central Railways are more than 25 years old, the maximum life of a train.
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CR officials have said the conversion of 1,500-Volt direct current (DC) traction to 25,000Volt alternate current (AC) will be delayed for want of crucial clearances from the railway board.
This means more than 40 lakh CR suburban commuters will have to continue travelling in DC trains, most of which are over 25 years old, the maximum life of a train. Of the 121 trains available with the CR, 27 are DC rakes.
The old trains develop frequent snags, leading to the disruption in services and inconveniencing commuters.
“Once the DC-AC conversion is completed, we can operate the newly-procured rakes, which will be better and faster,” said a senior railway official from CR’s Mumbai division, on condition of anonymity, as he is not authorised to speak to the media.
The CR had recently conducted a trial run on the DC-AC traction conversion between Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and Thane on all four lines.
However, so far, some of the crucial structural exemptions, including horizontal, vertical and overhead equipment, have not been granted by the railway board, which is holding back the safety certification from commission railway safety (CRS).
“We have received a letter from the CR general manager for granting the above exemptions. However, the official papers for the requisite approval have not arrived,” said DP Pande, member traffic, railway board.
Chetan Bakshi, commissioner railway safety, central circle, said: “Once we receive the requisite clearance from the railway board, we will conduct a three day inspection, after which the project can start.”