Glitches may stop first Dahanu local from making history

History in the making might just hit a speed bumpExactly 160 years after Asiarsquos first local breezed along its maiden journey in 1853 from Bori Bunder to Thane Mumbairsquos suburban rail network is set to extend its western limb to make life easier for some 80000 commuters between Virar and Dahanu But history may just be riddled with speed bumpsu00a0 Teething troubles Western Railway General Manager Mahesh Kumar right along with senior officials who inspected the first pure alternating current rake on December 25 before it was put to service On April 16 Union Railway Pawan Kumar Bansal will flag off the first local from Dahanu which will leave Virar behind to be the last local station on the western route mdash to Churchgate u00a0But officials are not sure if this historic feat will be as smooth as that first ride all those years ago Thanks to the rakes plying on the section which are still experiencing teething troubles They do not speed up fast enough and even break down at times Hitch in the ride The Western Railway procured 10 special rakes manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory ICF in Chennai for the ChurchgateDahanu route They have the electrics to run on 25000volt alternating current AC However ever since the first of these started plying on December 25 last year on the 60kmlong ChurchgateVirar route there have been snags At times the locals have stopped midwayu00a0 On the track On April 16 Union Railway Pawan Kumar Bansal will flag off the first local from Dahanu mdash which will leave Virar behind to be the last local station on the western route mdash to Churchgate Representation Pic The WR procured three of these rakes in January this year at a cost of Rs 72 crore Official sources said the transformers and motors fitted in these trains malfunction at times ldquoThese are old rakes retrofitted with new electrics and motors So at times they give troublerdquo said a WR official adding that the problems would be taken care of Replacing the problematic paraphernalia will consume time and moneyu00a0 Own sweet time Due to the faults the train cannot go beyond a speed of 80 kmph unlike others that can accelerate to 100 kmph The motormen believe that it might not be able to cover the 64km VirarDahanu stretch within the stipulated time frame u00a0ldquoThe problems restrict the trains from accelerating and decelerating fast They take at least a kilometre to speed up That these donrsquot have pneumatic brakes ventilation or even illumination inside coaches isnrsquot goodrdquo said a WR official These rakes initially had the cables and electrics for running on 1500volt direct current DC line Officials reason that since these trains wouldnrsquot be carrying that much traffic all the way to the last station the speed and timings between two trains can be compromisedu00a0ldquoWe are operating these ICFmake trains as we need to give away our trains that can run on DCAC to Central Railway which is also upgrading its systemrdquo said Sharat Chandrayan chief public relations officer of the Western Railway Raking history All about the trains that will blaze the trail on the new route from Dahanu to Churchgate on April 16 gtgt They will be 12car rakes gtgtu00a0They will run on pure alternating current gtgtu00a0They will be more spacious with 6 additional capacity gtgtu00a0Seating capacity will increase to 1242 from the current 1174 The seating capacity of the 24hour secondclass ladies compartments will go up from 159 to 170 gtgtu00a0Initially eight services will be operated from Dahanu 80000 Number of daily commuters between Virar and Dahanu 34 Lakh Number of daily commuters between Virar and Churchgate u00a0