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GPS on EMUs may get delayed DC | 3 hours 44 min ago Share

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A first-of-its-kind stainless steel AC EMU being rolled out at ICF factory in Perambur on Tuesday. — DC Chennai: Rail travellers in the city should perhaps wait long for facilities like GPS based passenger annou­ncement on EMUs.

Southern Railway general manager Rakesh Misra cited technical shortcomings plus financial constraints and said  provision of amenities like GPS enabled public address system aboard EMUs (electrical multiple units) and stainless steel coaches would not happen immediately.

He was responding to media queries after flagging off the first fully stainless steel AC EMU rake with IGBT based 3-phase propulsion system produced with German engineering at ICF for phase-II of Mumbai urban transport project (MUTP).

Asked if Southern Railway would also buy stainless steel coaches from ICF for city EMUs, he said the MUTP project was funded by World Bank and Southern Railway does not have adequate funds to buy such expensive coaches as of now.

Earlier, addressing workers, ICF chief electrical engineer S. Sridhar said ICF would switch over to stainless steel in the next four years as soon as the Rs 600 crore conversion project gets over.

Listing out the value addition available in the new train, ICF chief mechanical engineer Pankaj Kumar said the new energy efficient and air conditioned EMU has been designed to allow 16,000 cubic meters of fresh air per hour in to a coach.

Lauding the Integral Coach Factory for delivering the value added coaches in time, Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation chairman cum managing director Rakesh Saksena presented Rs 1 lakh cash award to ICF and said the two-phase MUTP would ease the burden on Mumbai's overcrowded urban metro rail network. 

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