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Thane: Police personnel at the Mumbra Railway Station after several passengers reportedly fell from a moving train, resulting in four deaths and multiple injuries, in Thane, Monday. PTI
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Local trains for Mumbai Suburban to have automatic door closing system
The Railway Ministry has decided to have automatic door closing systems in coaches of existing and new local trains for Mumbai Suburban, a senior official said on Monday after four passengers died and six were injured when they fell from a moving overcrowded local train in Thane district. Officials said that in the wake of the unfortunate incident, the Railway Minister and Railway Board officials held a detailed meeting, and the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai has been tasked to manufacture non-air-conditioned local trains with automatic doors for Mumbai Suburban.
“The first train of the new design will be ready by November 2025 and after necessary tests and certification, it will be put into service by January 2026,” Dilip Kumar, Executive Director, Information and Publicity, Railway Board, said.
“This is in addition to the 238 AC trains already under manufacturing for Mumbai suburban services,” he said.
Redesigning non-AC trains
The officials said work is also underway to re-design the existing non-AC local trains to address the issue of ventilation so that they too can be fitted with automatic door closing systems.
The Railway Minister and Railway Board officials held a detailed meeting with the ICF, Chennai team on Monday, officials said.
“The purpose was to find a practical solution to the issue of automatic door closing in local non-AC trains in Mumbai. The major issue with automatic door closing in non-AC trains is suffocation because of reduced ventilation,” a railway official said. Kumar said that detailed discussions took place and it was decided that new non-AC trains will undergo three major design changes to resolve the key issue of ventilation.
“First, the doors will have louvres. Second, coaches will have roof mounted ventilation units to pump in fresh air. And third, the coaches will have vestibules so that passengers can move from one coach to another and balance out the crowd in a natural way,” Kumar added.
UN urges ratification of treaty to protect the planet's fragile oceans
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged world leaders to ratify a treaty that would allow nations to establish protected marine areas in international waters, warning that human activity was destroying ocean ecosystems. Guterres, speaking at the opening of the third UN Ocean Conference in Nice, cautioned that illegal fishing, plastic pollution and rising sea temperatures threatened delicate ecosystems and the people who depend on them. "The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it," Guterres said, citing collapsing fish stocks, rising sea levels and ocean acidification. Oceans also provide a vital buffer against climate change, by absorbing around 30% of planet-heating CO2 emissions. But as the oceans heat up, hotter waters are destroying marine ecosystems and threatening the oceans' ability to absorb CO2.
Mpox is still a health emergency: WHO
The mpox outbreak is still a public health emergency, the World Health Organization said on Monday, with the health body's director-general issuing a revised set of temporary recommendations. The WHO first declared the emergency in August last year, when an outbreak of a new form of mpox spread from the badly-hit Democratic Republic of Congo to neighbouring countries. A public health emergency of international concern is WHO's highest form of alert.
Apple faces AI, regulatory challenges as it woos developers at annual conference
Apple is facing an unprecedented set of technical and regulatory challenges as some of its key executives are set to take the stage at the company's annual software developer conference. On the technical side, many of the long-awaited artificial-intelligence features Apple promised at the same conference a year ago have been delayed until next year, even as its rivals such as Alphabet's Google and Microsoft woo developers with a bevvy of new AI features. Those unfulfilled promises included key improvements to Siri, its digital assistant. On the regulatory front, courts in the US and Europe are poised to pull down the lucrative walls around Apple's App Store as even some of the company's former supporters question whether its fees are justified.
Japan's Osaka Expo temporarily suspends water shows after high levels of bacteria detected
Popular daily fountain shows and a shallow pool area at Expo 2025 in Osaka have been temporarily suspended due to bacterial contamination that required cleaning and safety checks, the event organisers said on Monday. The aquatic show at the Water Plaza has been suspended since June 4 when legionella bacteria of up to 20 times the legal limit was detected in the water, a week after lower levels of contamination had been found. Another water area, called the Forest of Tranquility — a shallow reservoir over 2.3 hectares (5.7 acres) where visitors can soak their feet and relax — has also been closed for cleaning due to the legionella contamination, which can cause pneumonia. The bacteria contamination is the latest problem hitting the Expo site, where swarms of midges have been bothering visitors for weeks.
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