Rakes under MUTP 1 and 2 will have following common features.

1. IGBT based technology.
2. Quick acceleration and deceleration.
3. Regenerative braking.
4. LED display for passengers.
5. Forced ventilation.
6. Less noise.

The following improvements have been planned:

1. Coaches will be of Stainless Steel instead of corton steel.
2. The speed potential can be increased upto 110 Kmph.
3. The rake length can be increased to 18 Car.
4. For revised exterior painting & colour scheme, a separate consultancy is being awarded to NID, Ahmedabad.
5. For improved interior furnishing, NID, Ahmedabad is awarded a consultancy and report is under finalization.

First two prototype rakes of 12-car are planned to be put under test and trial in Mumbai area in 12-15 months. After successful trial of these rakes, series supply at the rate of 4, 12-car rakes per month is expected to start sometime in December 2013.

This is official information from MRVC, provided by a good friend of mine. Of course, I am expecting some delays here as well. And like I had posted earlier, my expectations from these rakes are very very low.

Drawings for interiors of MUTP-2 rakes, courtesy DNA

My first reaction is, old wine in new bottle. There is hardly any difference in the phase 1 and phase two rakes. These are just concept drawings and I am sure that there will be many changes (rather, trying to make it similar to the old design) before the final production begins. The biggest factor against the rakes is their manufacturer – Integral Coach Factory (ICF) at Chennai. No matter how good the design looks on paper, ICF will make sure that it looks bad in reality with their horrible finishing, pathetic workmanship and poor quality of materials (and they will still go on to call the rakes world class).

Moreover, the rakes will be based on the same decades old basic coach shell design of ICF. What this means is that the coaches, especially first class, will be short of space. It also remains to be seen whether MRVC opts for plastic panelling for the interiors. The plastic interiors of phase one rakes are prone to breaking especially in areas of heavy usage like near the door, not to mention that the plastic looks and feels very cheap, no where close to the proclaimed “world class”. Then there is the trademark ICF issue of quality of plastics (refer to this image). I sincerely hope MRVC chooses a better material for the interiors.

The text accompanying the images is available at this link. Improved seats, better blowers and GPS tracking systems are claimed to be the features of the new rakes. Okay. GPS is already present in the phase one rakes. I find the blowers in the phase one rakes to be good enough. I don’t see any need for improvement, expect perhaps a reduction in noise. Comfortable seats are of no use as legroom will be scant.

MRVC also claims that these rakes will be able to play at 110 km/h. Again not a useful improvement. Given the current amount of traffic, rakes find it difficult to attain even 100 km/h. 110 km/h is day dreaming. Instead of making such fancy unrealistic claims, MRVC should concentrate on cracking the whip on ICF and getting them to manufacture decent quality rakes. It would be fantastic if Mumbai gets some good quality rakes, but I am confident that ICF will not be able to do it.

MUMBAI: Bombardier, a Canadian firm, will install electrical infrastructure for seventy-two 12-car electric multiple units (EMUs) that will be procured by the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP-II). The rakes’ shells will be built at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, while electrical infrastructure, including traction motors, will be installed by Bombardier at a cost of Rs 14.8 crore per EMU.

The World Bank (WB), which approved a loan of Rs 1,910 crore for the MUTP-II, will have to okay Bombardier’s appointment.

Source: Times of India.

The article says “The steel rakes procured under MUTP-I are susceptible to corrosion.” So finally, after years of going gaga over the amazing advanced features of phase one rakes & peddling the rakes as made of stainless steel, how did the press and PR department of MRVC suddenly find out that phase one rakes are prone to corrosion? I have been pointing out corrosion in phase 1 rakes since ages! The answer, IMO is that they needed something to show as a feature of the phase 2 rakes, hence they finally admitted this flaw.

PS: Apologies for posting this late. Last week was a very busy one!

2 years after they were first manufactured by ICF, Chennai, the trains procured under MUTP 1 are already falling apart. Small but important features like latches, handles, wall panels, flooring are found broken. Most trains do not have proper latches and screws on the wall panels are coming off. Local workshops are being forced to put in extra effort and weld these items in the new trains so that they stay in place.

This is not unexpected at all. It was waiting to happen from day one.

1. No new rakes. ICF did not despatch any new rake in August and September. This will certainly qualify as the longest break in production.

2. The rake having Siemens bogies (what the media calls high speed rake) hasn’t entered service yet. It ahs been four and a half months since it was despatched from ICF. Trials of bogies would definitely not take so long. Trials of the first ever MRVC rake were completed in 4 months. Those trials were far more comprehensive covering all the systems of the rakes. Hence, taking more than 4 months just for testing bogies is fishy.

3. An article in Times of India couple of days ago said that CR will not get any more MRVC rakes. This is confusing. As per MRVC’s own allotment, CR is supposed to get 6 more rakes and WR is supposed to get one more. So either the news report is false or some one has “eaten” the money of the 7 pending rakes!

4. There is absolutely no progress as far as MUTP-2 rakes are concerned. The bids were opened way back in December 2010. Since then the progress on this front has been zilch.

I sometimes wonder whether anyone cares about Mumbai’s progress or not! Every single infrastructure project in Mumbai has huuuuge delays. So much for transforming Mumbai into Shanghai.

The bids for manufacturing 72 new local trains were accepted by Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) in December last year, but to date the contract has not been awarded to any company.

The delay has not gone down well with the World Bank, which will partly fund the production of new 12-coach trains. On July 29, a team from the organisation met officials of the Railway Ministry and expressed concerns about the project getting stalled.

The plan to get new trains is part of the World Bank-aided Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP). The bidding process for the same was held at MRVC’s headquarters in Churchgate on December 7, 2010.

Sources in the ministry said that a manufacturer would be finalised soon. The new chairman of the Railway Board, Vinay Mittal, had some queries about the bidding process and he would forward them to MRVC.

Source.

Alongwith this, production of existing rakes too has almost come to a standstill, with about 1 rake being despatched per month. Overall, not a good state of affairs.

PS: The blog crossed the milestone of 10,000 views about a week ago. A big thank you to all the viewers!

World Class rakes – World class plastic quality. This is the latest rake of WR.

And then they say legroom cannot be increased any more. Huge gap (at least 6-8 cm) between Partition near door and seats.

Condition of first class seat in a 6-7 month old rake

This would be a total waste of money. What will they do with 200 rakes? WR and CR are retrofitting at least 30 old rakes which will be in service for 10  more years. Then we have 72 rakes coming in MUTP phase 2. In fact, 72 rakes of phase 2 itself will be more than sufficient. I wonder what they will do with 200 rakes of phase 3!Just to put thing in perspective, here is what can be done (hypothetically) with 200 rakes. Assuming a hypothetical situation in which there are no other trains on the tracks, it is possible to run Churchgate – Vadodara services at a frequency of 6 minutes if you have 200 rakes.

In the same article, the CM has said that MUTP 2 will be completed by December 2012. What a joke! I doubt whether even MUTP 1 would be completed by that time.

It seems the honourable CM does not know what he is talking.

Even as the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) struggles to complete the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP), it is facing an exodus of sorts. After the superannuation of managing director Pramod Chander Sehgal last month, more than 11 officials are likely to go back to their parent cadre soon. Their sudden exit is likely to affect the ongoing project components, admitted officials.

According to sources in the Corporation, 11 grade I officials handling crucial projects will be issued repatriation orders by June 30. The MRVC — a public sector undertaking (PSU) of the Ministry of Railways — was formed in July 1992 to execute the rail-related MUTP works. Since it’s a PSU, officials from the railways come to the MRVC on deputation. According to the service rules, they work in the organisation for a stipulated period and go back to their parent cadre — the respective zonal railways.

“It was a known fact that these officials have to go back to their parent cadre after completing their tenures. But when the management knew that a large number of officials will have to be repatriated at the same time, they should have planned their exit in a way that would have not created a vacuum and hampered projects. ” said a senior MRVC official.

Source.

It looks like MRVC is headed for a disaster with no MD, and now these officials too going back.