RailEnquiry

CHENNAI: The country's first stainless steel electric multiple unit (EMU), meant for Mumbai's suburban network, was flagged off at Integral Coach Factory here on Tuesday. The 12-car unit is the first of 72 rakes to be supplied to Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) as part of the project's second phase. The coaches are energy efficient, and have better seats, interior lighting and broader windows.However, it will take several years before such rakes are inducted into Chennai's suburban network. "The suburban trains for Mumbai are made with World Bank funding and are expensive. The railways will have to take a decision," said Rakesh Misra, general manager of ICF and Southern Railway, after flagging off the rake.The new rake will be tested, certified and commissioned in Mumbai in a week. The feedback from commuters would be taken into account while building the next rake that is expected to be made by the end of October."The design will be perfected and frozen in January. Thirty rakes will be supplied next year to MRVC," said Pankaj Kumar, chief mechanical engineer, ICF.Being made of stainless steel, the new rake will need minimum maintenance and will be more reliable when compared to the earlier 129 rakes that were supplied to Mumbai under the first phase of the 3,000 crore project.Rakesh Saxena, chairman and managing director of MRVC, said, "Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) has introduced a lot of technology into the suburban network like forced ventilation system and GPS-aided display boards.The 909 coaches that ICF supplied under phase one helped us to reduce overcrowding by about 18%. Now, the number of people who travel has increased and has touched 7.5 million commuters per day. The new set of rakes will be useful to reduce overcrowding."S Sridhar, chief electrical engineer, ICF, said the factory was the leader in three phase propulsion technology which was energy efficient and could be leveraged for manufacture of metro rail coaches in the future.