Railways to start trials of semi-AC locals by Dec-end

Indian Railways (IR) is planning to start trials of semi-air-conditioned (AC) trains for Western Railway (WR) from December-end and will introduce one such local

Indian Railways (IR) is planning to start trials of semi-air-conditioned (AC) trains for Western Railway (WR) from December-end and will introduce one such local on WR’s suburban line by 2020.

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Trials are likely to be conducted on both 12-coach and 15-coach local trains. For this, a 12-coach train will either have six AC compartments and six non-AC compartment or three AC compartments and nine non-AC compartments. Similarly, a 15-coach train will have nine non-AC compartments and six AC compartments. All the AC compartments will be categorised as first-class compartments.

After the trials, approval for the operation of these semi-AC trains will be sought from the Railway Board — the apex body of all zonal railways.

“A decision on the combinations of AC and non-AC compartments will soon be finalised. We have one AC local train, the compartments of which will be swapped on a regular train. After conducting the trials and receiving permissions, one semi-AC train will be introduced on the suburban railway track,” said a senior WR official.

The zonal railway is also in talks with the Research Design and Standard Organisation (RDSO), which will approve the final design of the semi-AC train. RDSO’s approval is required for the operation of any new type of local or outstation train on the Indian Railways network.

Currently, WR has three AC local trains — one train is operational, one is undergoing its periodic maintenance and WR is conducting trials of the third one.

Union railway minister Piyush Goyal had announced in 2018 that 70 local trains in the country will get AC compartments.