Over 500 145;overage146; coaches in use, says RTI application

Even as a modernisation programme is being carried out by both the Central Railways and Western Railways with new swanky rakes making their way to the city every month...

Even as a modernisation programme is being carried out by both the Central Railways CR and Western Railways WR with new swanky rakes making their way to the city every month, both these railways continue to use over 500 coaches that are overage or past their period of usability, according to information obtained by Newsline through a Right to Information RTI application.

An EMU coach is termed 8216;over-aged8217; after it completes its codal life of 25 years. With some 65 lakh commuters using these coaches everyday, they constantly undergo wear and tear.

The WR, which has 71 EMU rakes trains, runs 1,156 services daily. The information revealed that of the total 877 coaches in the WR, 277 are overage, which is one-fourth of its total EMU coaches. All these coaches are being used on a daily basis by the WR.

The WR, few years ago, had also manufactured a nine-car EMU rake solely from overage coaches. However, the train was scrapped and not put in service after the railway board rejected the train.

The CR is relatively better in terms of the use of over-aged coaches. The CR has 144 nine-car rakes and 120 twelve-car rakes. The CR comprises of 2,378 coaches. Of these, 244 are overage coaches. The RTI reply revealed that it runs 200 overage coaches everyday.

Interestingly, under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project, both phase I and II, the WR and the CR are expected to get 191 EMU rakes. Under phase I of the project, a total of 32 EMU rakes have already been commissioned out of which 16 EMU rakes have been given to WR while CR has 16 new rakes.

The WR and CR have also maintained that 8216;proper precaution8217; is taken during the usage of these coaches so that the safety of the commuters is ensured. But a senior rail official pointed out that this in turn increases the maintenance cost of these coaches. He also said, 8220;Unless the new EMU rakes are commissioned, we cannot phase out the old rakes and coaches. These old coaches will be phased out from the services systematically.8221;