15-car trains on CR from mid-october

The much-awaited 15-car Central Railway (CR) suburban trains will be rolled out by mid-October, the new divisional railway manager (DRM) for Mumbai Mukesh Nigam said on Thursday.

“The introduction of the 15-coach train is important in order to ease commuters’ travelling woes. Our work involves platform extension, shifting of the signal and overhead lines, which we have undertaken on priority, and we will ensure the work is completed within the scheduled time,” said Nigam, an Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) 1984 batch officer who took charge of the Mumbai division in the first week of August.

Other than ensuring comfortable train travel to suburban commuters, Nigam’s focus is on improving infrastructure and passenger amenities.

“Punctuality in train operations remains our priority, but so is cleanliness at stations, construction of more foot-over-bridges (FoBs) and toilets. The commissioning of more FoBs is also top priority in order to dissuade commuters from crossing tracks,” Nigam said.