The Western Railway is planning to increase AC coaches for local services.
They conducted a survey among local train commuters of the Mumbai Suburban network and tried to know about their preference for a change in local trains services.
Speaking to ANI, Alok Bansal, General Manager of Western railway said that this survey was conducted with 20 questions and 70 per cent of the commuters requested Railway authorities to increase the number of AC locals.
"We are working towards more AC local services and we are in continuous talks with Maharashtra government's Mumbai urban transport Project (MUTP) and Central government's Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC)," he said.
Bansal said that Mumbai local is called the lifeline of Mumbai and with the time people are looking for better facilities and amenities in local trains and because of this most of the people who participated in the survey opted for an increase in AC local rail services.
Talking about the future of non-AC local services, he said that at present non-AC services will also be available in a certain proportion in each local train.
He further said that in the coming days there will be more AC locals will be introduced and in near future, most of the trains will have AC services.
"We are planning to have hybrid Local trains also where AC coaches and non-ac coaches will also be there in the same train. We expect that in the coming few years, all Locals will have AC coaches along with present non AC coaches. We are conducting a feasibility test for the same," Bansal added.
He also said that the Western Railway authorities are in talks with the Indian Coach Factory (IFC) to discuss the technical issues of connecting AC coaches with non-AC coaches of local trains and other issues.
( With inputs from ANI )
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