Title - Conversion on Harbour line from DC to AC

Mumbai : The Central Railway (CR) has kept itself under a one-year deadline for conversion from Direct Current 15,000 (DC) to Alternate Current 25,000 (AC) on Harbour line all the way to Panvel and Vashi.

Although this is good news for the Navi Mumbai commuter, CR has missed in its own deadline for DC to AC conversion between Kurla and Thane as well as Thane and Kalyan twice – first on January 25 and secondly in the first week of May. CR officials have given different reasons on different occasions regarding this delay, one CR official on condition of anonymity said, “We are facing lack of rakes, we are waiting for the Western Railway to hand over the DC rakes.”

Sources also revealed that CR officials are planning the conversion in the wake of the possibility that Western Railway (WR) is to receive the new Bombardier rakes in the month of August. Hence are hoping that they might be given AC rakes to ply on CR’s mainline as well as Harbour.

Whereas a sources revealed that the electrical as well as the engineering department are unable to co-ordinate a time and day to conduct the inspection required to give the green signal for the conversion work to begin. Unlike thought earlier the DC will not help increase the speed but help the in saving energy. But the most important advantage the CR officials say they will have the decrease in the breakdown in the number of pantograph as well as the snapping of the overhead wire. The Harbour line has the oldest rakes in the entire Mumbai railway network. FPJ had in the month of April done a story in which it had learnt that 42 rakes plying on the CR are 30 years old.  520 rakes operate on the main Harbour line and 12 on Trans-Harbour every day. During morning peak hours (8.00 am to 11 am) 54 rakes leave CST towards Panvel, Vashi and Belapur and 22 on Trans-harbour.

Arpika Bhosale