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Railways reads the riot act to Central Railway over suburban delays

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CR officials have been asked to improve punctuality in next 10-15 days
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The railway board's topmost authority on traffic and operational issues has some good news for Mumbaikars. DP Pande, Member (Traffic) Railway Board, told mediapersons on Thursday that an action plan has been chalked out and Central Railway (CR) authorities have been given strict deadlines to ensure a visible difference in punctuality of suburban trains in the next 10-15 days.

"The board will be giving all assistance but the services will have to improve. Every department has been given their deadlines and the CR officials have said that they will be bale to do it," Pande said.

In another breather for the public, Pande, in response to a query, said that there was no immediate plan to increase suburban fares to offset losses rising out of the subsidy given to local commuters in their monthly season passes. "A study is being conducted at various levels of the railways to ensure that the suburban sector earns enough and has enough to sustain and replenish itself. But no fare hike," said Pande.

However, that is where the good news ends. Pande conceded that the conversion of CR's suburban lines between Thane and CST from 1,500 Volt Direct Current to 25,000 Alternating Current — which has missed several deadlines so far — will take another 6 months. Incidentally, the conversion was supposed to be completed in August this year. In late October, the deadline was further set as December.

"It's a huge work which has to be done without effecting services. There are road and foot overbridges that need to be lifted. There are other technical issues for which permissions from the Commissioner of Railway Safety has been sought. It will take time," said Pande. He added that the issue of CR requiring more rakes to run services once the conversion is complete was being discussed between CR and WR.

Parel Terminus confusion:
Pande's contention that the Parel Terminus would come up as part of the 5th and 6th line, but only if the railways could not take the two lines all the way to CST due to lack of space, is in contradiction to what the engineering department of CR has been saying so far.

The engineering department is clear that Parel's suburban terminus, though part of the overall 5th and 6th line project, can come up independent of the fate of the two new lines. "These things only cause confusion and nothing else. The work for the terminus and the 5th and 6th line have been sanctioned. It is possible to build the Parel suburban terminus even if the work on the 5th and 6th line gets hit due to paucity of land. There is ample space at Parel's western edge for a terminus," said a railway official.

Automatic Sliding Doors:
Pande said the general consensus was that Mumbai's suburban locals needed ASDs and all new rakes would henceforth be fitted with ASDs. However, there was lack of clarity on issues of ventilation inside the coaches — since they would not be air-conditioned — as well as whether it would reduce the number of people travelling in a local trains. Even issues like trains requiring longer halts for people to get in and allow the doors to close clearly remains grey areas considering the sheer passenger volume in Mumbai.

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