Mumbai swelters but railways drags feet on new AC locals

Railway ministry delays supplying AC local trains to Mumbai despite high demand, with only 12 sought but none in production

MUMBAI: Despite the city being in need of more air-conditioned local trains, the railway ministry is dragging its feet on supplying them, highly placed railway officials told HT. The rail authorities have sought 12 new AC local trains but not even one is under manufacturing at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai.

The rail authorities have sought 12 new AC local trains but not even one is under manufacturing at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/Hindustan Times) (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

On June 28, union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, during his monsoon review meeting with the Western Railway (WR) and Central Railway (CR) general managers and officials, asked about the demand for AC locals in Mumbai and whether the lowering of single-journey ticket fares had helped.

The officials apprised him about the demand for AC local trains, especially after the May 2022 slash in single-journey fare in AC locals and first-class compartments by ₹30 and ₹25 respectively for the first five km.

“We informed him about the need for more AC local trains, as the demand for these has been exceptionally good,” said a WR official. “We do not know the reason behind the delay in manufacturing and supplying of new AC local trains. We were expecting one to come by March-April this year, which has not happened yet.”

The delay comes at a time when the plan to procure 238 AC local trains under Phases 3 and 3A of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) has been indefinitely shelved by the railway ministry. The idea was to gradually replace all non-AC trains in the city, but when it was pointed out by opposition leaders that this would inconvenience lakhs of commuters who could not afford AC locals, the plan was put on the backburner.

As per the latest figures, the daily ridership in AC locals in 2024-25 is around 1,27,388 commuters per day from 96 services on the Churchgate-Virar route. WR operates 96 services from its seven AC rakes while CR operates 66 services from six AC rakes.

The authorities attributed the increase in ridership to the improvements made in the AC trains. Sources said the railways had improved cooling and prevented water leakage in the monsoon as part of their ‘reliability action plan’. The roof-mounted AC units on WR have been blow-dried with hot air guns, rust has been cleaned and cables replaced wherever necessary. The size of the drain pipe has been increased from 20mm to 40mm. Issues with the automatic door closure system have been addressed after the provision of an L stopper plate at the bottom of door, tightening of main roller bolts, and a gap of 25 mm created between inner and outer foot board plates to resolve the issue of the doors’ sluggish movement.

“We have also managed to reduce the incidents of failure inside AC locals after identifying flaws and issues,” said an official. “For future AC locals, we have demanded that the capacity of AC units be two units of 17 tonnes each, up from the current 15 tonnes.”

Madhu Kotian, president of the Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh said that the railways always began new ventures but did not sustain them. “This is the issue with AC locals as well,” he said. “Now that there is a continuous rising demand from passengers, the railways should be proactive in adding a substantial number to its fleet.”