Commuting on a few Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) trains in the city is all set to become charming as the Southern Railway has just received four brand new colourful trains.
Sporting bright violet and white, the coaches were manufactured by the country’s premier production unit of the Indian Railways, the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai. Interestingly, the exteriors of the rakes have been designed on the lines of the EMUs operated by the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation Ltd, in the financial capital of the country.
“We had delivered four EMU rakes, each (rake) comprising of nine compartments, to the Southern Railway since last month. We will supply one more rake by this weekend,” a senior official with ICF told Express. “In fact, the Southern Railway is getting new EMU coaches after a period of three years,” the official added. Unlike the conventional EMUs, the motor coaches in the new EMUs have aerodynamic leading front-end. Besides, it has seats earmarked for the physically challenged people.
According to the official, each compartment has a seating capacity for 100 passengers. “Also, special seats to facilitate the movement of differently abled persons have been provided. Two compartments in every train have 16 seats for the physically challenged people,” the official said.
Asked about the gaudy violet and white coated exterior, official sources claimed that they had followed the design used of EMUs in Mumbai. As of now, EMU trains running on the Chennai suburban section wore dark green, brown and cream colours.
Meanwhile, a new EMU have been brought to the EMU Workshop at Tambaram for inspection. According to sources with Southern Railway, the coaches delivered by the ICF would be subjected to ‘Joint Safety Certificate’, wherein authorities from different departments would carry out inspections.
However, efforts to contact senior officials with Chennai Division to get the information on when these EMUs would be inducted went in vain.