Almost 32 per cent coaches of the Electrical Multiple Unit (EMU) trains — operated by Western Railways (WR) on the Mumbai suburban railway network — have become overage. Not sounding out the alarm bells over their safety as yet, Railways are quietly readying a plan to replace this ageing fleet with brand new state-of-the-art suburban trains.

Out of the 854 EMU coaches — being used to operate 68 rakes on the 60 km-long suburban section between Churchgate and Virar — 268 are aged between 30 and 35 years while another nine are between 25 and 30 years. Usually, a coach that’s operating for more than 25 years is deemed overage, but can be allowed to run with regular maintenance till it is 30 years old. However, with such a large number of coaches exceeding 30 years in service and only 314 coaches which are less than 15 years old, Railways have come to the conclusion that there is little option but to phase out the overage rolling stock and introduce better trains.

Mumbaiites have already had a glimpse of what WR plans to procure. While the first hi-tech suburban train, manufactured by Integral Coach Factory at Chennai, was introduced on the WR section in November this year, the second such train was inducted on December 17, and the trials for the third are already on. Costing around Rs 20 crore per rake, both Western and Central Railways will share half of the total 157 such trains, each having 12 coaches, in the coming three to four years.

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