Here's an exclusive sneak peek into Central Railway's new train seats

The 101yearold Matunga Central Railway Workshop mdash 14 acres inundated with metal rails wheels and grease cans mdash has become a new ground for experiments The workshop has come up with modified seats for Mumbais Central Railway CR local trains the first of which will roll out on January 29 Sunday midday got an exclusive peek into the making of these new seats as well as the new seating arrangement meant for CRrsquos 42 lakh commutersLR Engineers VD Satam SK Shrivatra and Akshay Pande in the new 22 coach at the Matunga Central Railway Workshop PicSayyed Sameer AbediThe 22 seating arrangement was proposed in December last year as a solution to CRrsquos rushhour rides This comes at a time when Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu stated on January 22 that the situation of Mumbairsquos suburban railways was critical with rising numbers of deaths on tracksBlue no moreThe engineers from the Matunga workshop are in process of assembling and fitting stainless steel seats for local trains These seats will replace the blue polycarbonate seats which were installed about four years ago inside the secondclass compartments of CRrsquos local trains This is the first time that seats will be made entirely of stainless steel until now only the frames were made of steel on which blue cushioned seats in the first class compartment or bluebrown polycarbonate seats in the second class compartment were placedSources at the workshop said they had got lots of time to think and experiment with the quality of seats ldquoThe polycarbonate seats look better but are brittle The stainless steel seats are sturdier and will last longrdquo aid an official from Matunga Workshop Each new seat costs R4000 while the polycarbonate ones are Rs 6000 each22 seatsOn December 22 the CR unveiled the first train with modifications mdash at a cost of R15 lakh mdashsuch as a longitudinal arrangement removal of seats close to the door and a lessened frame width That train accommodated 336 people but this new one will carry an additional 352 people Officials claim this will not only allow them to accommodate more people but will also not put pressureon the bogie and wheels of the rake which ferries at least 3600 people every dayEarlier the engineers had got merely eight days to work with in order to keep up with the Suburban Accident Committeersquos report on tackling railway deaths on the suburban network In the first rake they simply removed the seats haphazardly and cut and welded wherever required Now chief workshop manager Mahesh Kumar and engineers S Shrivatra V Satam and A Pande have had time to think of the changes they could experiment with The new modified rakes cost R30 lakhs mdash double the previous one mdash since the modifications are highend They fixed 38 steel walls next to the doors costing R30000 each which are now properly trimmed and welded in correct shape added 40 more handles inside a single coach which normally has 172 handles and also ensured that new seats were triedThe 22 seats was first planned in 1975 by a railway officer named PC Sehgal who later retired as the Managing Director of Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation the planning agency for railways specifically for Mumbai He was the one who first proposed this type of seating arrangement to accommodate more peopleLongitudinal seating unfeasibleThe 22 seating arrangement will exist in four coaches and one of these will also have the longitudinal seating arrangement as is seen in the metro service Minor changes will be made inside this coach by placing two steel grab poles mdash similar to the ones that are present near the door for people to hold mdash in the middle of the coachSources said that MPs and politicians have demanded the longitudinal seat However officials are skeptical saying that the high number of standing passengers hosted by the longitudinal seating arrangement will prove heavier for the wheel sets to handle The Research Design and Standards Organisation RDSO mdash which is the planning agency for Indian Railways in Lucknow mdash is studying the feasibility of these longitudinal seats