Title - Escalators on CR, all WR trains to be 12-car soon

Central Railway plans to commission escalators on important stations while Western Railway will upgrade all its nine-car service to 12-car during this financial year. The commitments were given by general managers of both the zonal railways as part of their Independence Day messages.

CR general manager Subodh Jain said, “Commissioning of two escalators each at Dadar, Vikhroli, Thane, Dombivli, Kalyan and Nagpur stations has been planned during this financial year.” On WR, too, 32 escalators have been planned to be installed at various suburban and non-suburban stations. WR’s GM Mahesh Kumar said, “We plan to convert all the remaining 196 nine-car suburban services to 12-car. Moreover, 35 new services are proposed to be introduced during the current fiscal.”

Jain said construction of new foot-overbridges at CST, Kurla, Vidyavihar, LTT, Thane, Ambernath and Badlapur stations is in progress. Further, new foot-overbridges have also been planned at Kalyan, Vithalwadi, Karjat and Chembur.

Kumar said new mechanized laundries have also been sanctioned for Mumbai Central and Bandra Terminus to provide clean linen to passengers of long-distance trains.

Jain said platform extension work to accommodate 15-car rakes on CR’s main line is in full swing at Byculla, Kurla, Ghatkopar and Dombivli stations. Moreover, on CR, stateof-the-art, AC dormitories for the convenience of passengers have been constructed and commissioned at Thane and Kalyan stations. Similar dormitories will also be constructed at CST, Dadar and LTT, Jain added. He said, “CR has also sanctioned Rs 37.4 crore for security equipment at 17 important stations.” On WR, 650 more CCTV cameras for 37 stations are on the cards for further strengthening security.