The AC rake currently being tried out on the Central Railway cost the Integral Coach Factory Rs 51.42 crore to construct. The sum allotted for each of the 47 rakes under MUTP 3 is Rs 61 crore, an amount that can ensure the rakes are air-conditioned, said officials.
Could the 47 rakes—amounting to 565 coaches—to be procured under Phase 3 of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) be the 'sweetener' for civic poll-bound Mumbai in the forthcoming Railway Budget? Several officials who DNA spoke to in the run-up to the first combined Railway-General Budget said that there is a high possibility that the ruling dispensation might announce that the 47 rakes could be air-conditioned. Officials believe that the combined budget wouldn't give much time for an elaborate set of announcements pertaining to the Railways. Therefore, the central government might resort to announcing such sweeteners and keeping other items in the fine print.
"The Railway Board has decided that the 47 rakes to be procured at a cost of Rs 2,899 crore under MUTP 3 will have an automatic closing-door mechanism and vestibules. If these rakes, which come with these mechanisms, are not air-conditioned, it would be a classic case of 'one step forward and two steps backward'. The chances of an announcement that the rakes will be air-conditioned remains high," said one official.
The AC rake currently being tried out on the Central Railway cost the Integral Coach Factory Rs 51.42 crore to construct. The sum allotted for each of the 47 rakes under MUTP 3 is Rs 61 crore, an amount that can ensure the rakes are air-conditioned, said officials.
Mumbai and Thane will go to the polls to elect corporators to the Brihanmumbai Municipal and Thane Municipal Corporations on February 21. The friction between the ruling BJP and the Shiv Sena is setting the stage for a hard-fought contest. "The BJP not only controls the Railway Ministry, but its minister (Suresh Prabhu) is a Mumbaikar. So, using the budget to make big-ticket announcements with an eye on the forthcoming civic polls has not been entirely ruled out," said an official.
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