The biggest debate currently on among railway officials is whether the 47 rakes that will be procured under the recently-approved Phase III of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project should be air-conditioned. The logic behind those saying 'yes', said officials, is that these MUTP Phase III rakes will start coming in by 2020—since its procurement has to follow global tendering norms—and by then there will be a robust demand for air-conditioned suburban commuting in Mumbai, if there isn't one already.
The other reason, said a top ranking official, was that the current crop of conventional Siemens and Bombardier rakes—cumulatively over 145 by the time all 72 Bombardier rakes come in next year—will serve out their codal life well into 2030. A number of officials DNA spoke to agreed that these Bombardier and Siemens rakes will ensure conventional travel for a long time. Also, adding more conventional rakes under Phase III of MUTP may be an illogical move.
The other reason, they pointed out, is that increasing fares—something the Railways calls 'rationalising season pass fares by removing subsidies'—is a tough proposition since the current comfort level during a suburban commute is fairly low.
"The talk of rationalising season pass fares is all right, but it can be done best when we give commuters something better. That 'something better' should be an air-conditioned segment which will pull in the private car-owners and the well-heeled who would prefer to pay more as long as rail commute is faster than road commute," said an official.
Even the mathematics of the rake purchase is currently in favour of air-conditioned ones, say officials. Under Phase III of MUTP, Western and Central Railways will get 47 rakes, for which a provision of Rs 2,899 crore has been earmarked. "This comes to around Rs 61 crore per rake at the current price. This fits in perfectly well with the fact that the first AC rake that has come in for testing from Integral Coach Factory Chennai costs around Rs 54 crore," said an official. An RTI by DNA to ICF Chennai put the cost of the AC rake at Rs 51.42 crore.
