Mumbai will stop getting new rakes after March 2011, thanks to the lackadaisical attitude of the railway officials.
The officials have failed to identify a company to manufacture various parts of the trains as the current manufacturer, Siemens, has been banned by the World Bank from providing materials to projects funded by the latter.
Under the proposed Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP), the city was expected to get 129 12-coach rakes in the first phase and 74 12-coach rakes by the end of the second phase. “Siemens has been appointed for rakes to be supplied in the first phase, which will be completed by March-April 2011, by when we expect to get 129 12-coach rakes. In the second phase, however, it will be difficult to get rakes as railways is yet to identify a manufacturing major like Siemens to provide material in bulk,” a senior railways official said. “As a result, the manufacturing activity at the integral coach factory in Chennai will also come to a standstill.”
The official added that the railways need to come out of the slumber before it is too late. “Siemens was identified in 2004 for providing materials required for the manufacturing of the rakes. However, the first rake reached Mumbai only in November 2007 and the regular production of four rakes per month began only after August 2008,” the official said.
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