Mumbai trains to have automatic doors

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, October 27

Despite complaints of suffocation and congestion from commuters, the Railways has decided to press ahead with automatic closing doors in Mumbai’s local trains.

Sources say the first phase will see women’s compartments on 10 trains in the Central Railway fitted with automatic doors.

These doors will remain shut when the train is in motion and open only when it comes to a halt at the station.

Each train will require 20 sets of automatic doors for the women’s compartments alone, officials said.

The Railways has drawn criticism over footage of commuters falling off running trains on the social media. Apart from Members of Parliament, the World Bank, which is funding the Mumbai Urban Transport Project, is also insisting on automatic doors as a condition for financial assistance to revamp Mumbai’s train network.

As an experiment, the railways had installed automatic doors in the women’s compartment of a train on Western Railway. However, commuters complained of suffocation and the system malfunctioned from surging crowds, officials said.

Technical experts from the railways have zeroed in on improved technology for automatic doors to be introduced in Central Railway’s trains. Sources say the compartment will have to be fitted with ventilation equipment to ensure passengers are not suffocated once the doors are closed.

Deaths on tracks

The Railways has been under fire ever since footage in the social media showed commuters falling off running trains. In 2015, more than 700 persons died after falling off trains, while over 3,000 persons lose their lives on Mumbai’s train tracks every year