To make up for lost time and cater to the increasing passenger loads, the railways are using nearly 45 per cent, or Rs 2400 crore, of the World Bank aid to buy new rakes for Mumbai's suburban rail system under the Mumbai Urban Transportation Project (MUTP-II).

State Chief Secretary P Subramanium will be meeting senior Railway Board officials on Wednesday morning to discuss issues relating to the purchase and `remanufacture' of rakes for the suburban railways. (Remanufacture involves reassembling of the existing rake after determining the faulty parts and replacing them.) The railways are lobbying for an additional Rs 1000 crore from the World Bank for the recycle of EMUs.

The World Bank is presentlyconsidering projects worth Rs 5378 crore for the MUTP-II's rail component. The loan is expected to be sanctioned sometime next year, and the project has to be wrapped up in the time-bound five year span.

In June this year, De Consult of Germany submitted a detailed project report on the train redesign to the railways. The report deals with the minutest aspects of the rakes, from the fans to the coach shell.

Presently both the Western and Central Railways operate 177 rakes on a network route of 489 kilometres. The rakes designed for a load of 2200 passengers carry over 4500 commuters in dense crush load conditions. The aging rakes which suffer from periodic faults are incapable of handling the explosive passenger growth in the next century.

So what will it be like travelling in a 5.45 Virar fast a decade from now? Well, with MUTP in place, the railways envisage bringing down the load to a manageable 3000 commuters.

Also, MUTP-II's massive purchasing programme will involve buying 240 new nine-car rakes.Sixty five of the older rakes which are over 20 years old will be scrapped while 134 of the newer rakes will be remade at a cost of Rs 1000 crore.

All the coaches on the suburban rail network were manufactured by Chennai-based Indian Coach Factory (ICF) and Jessop's of Calcutta. However, chances of either bagging a fresh contract appear to be slim for the technology factor involved. The contract will involve a transfer of technology package from a foreign firm.

Senior railway officials told Express Newsline that it will take at least two years from the date of awarding the contract to the development of the prototype coach. The 134 older coaches, less than 20 years old, will be remade in a stop-gap arrangement pending the mass production of the new generation coaches.

However, one of the major recommendations involves the modification of rakes and overhead DC equipment for using the more energy efficient AC power supply. The new AC supply will enhance the speed and carrying capacity of therakes.

WHAT THE REPORT SAYS

1) Change from DC TO AC power supply will increase speed and efficiency.

2) 50 per cent of existing rakes to be phased out, rest to be reconstructed.

3) Existing coaches to be redesigned using corrosion resistant materials.

4) Better ventilation, lighting seating and standing amenities.

5) Peak load to be reduced from 4500 to 3000 persons