Central Railway (CR) commuters will now have to wait for another 12 days before they can avail of the 15-car services on the Central line. The new date for inauguration has been set for October 15.
Representation pic
The CR authorities had to alter their plan of inaugurating the services on September 28 after the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) demanded a safety certificate from the authorities a day prior to the inauguration.
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The first 15-car service was supposed to be inaugurated by CR Chief Operations Manager Z A Siddiqui. The CR authorities had planned out the date in such a manner that it coincided with Siddiqui’s last working day, which was September 28.
CR officials said in their efforts to make the inauguration happen on Siddiqui’s last working day, works such as extension of platforms and sheds and upgradation of signalling system had been carried out on a war footing.
“We were about to fix the timing and venue when the CRS demanded the safety certificate saying that we would be running trains on AC/DC tracks,” a CR official said.
CR officials said the new 15-car trains would have additional coaches for female passengers, handicapped commuters and for those wanting to travel first class.
Initially, the CR had planned to run 10 services per day between CST-Kalyan, CST-Thane and Dadar-Thane. These services will be functional only on fast tracks and trains will halt only at CST, Dadar, Kurla, Ghatkopar, Thane, Dombivli and Kalyan.
“Due to technical issues and non-completion of work, the 15-car service will be operational from October 15,” said A K Singh, CR PRO.
Sources said since trains on Western Railway (WR) run on alternating current (AC), they did not face issues operating 15-car services and hence were not asked by the CRS to submit a safety certificate. The WR has been running 15-car trains between Dadar and Virar since November 2010. The sources also revealed that the existing 12-car trains were converted into 15-car trains by adding coaches from the older trains.u00a0
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