Rules for Western Railway closed-door firms relaxed

The companies involved in Western Railway’s (WR) closed-door project, which was started to curb deaths of commuters by falling off running trains, have proven unqualified.

The closed-door system was introduced in a first class ladies coach in March 15 last year but the experiment faded out as it had a lot of glitches, like delays in opening when the rake halted on the platform or only one side opening while the other remained shut.

The WR finally revived the project by floating tenders for the same in April this year in which one of the main pre-requites was that the private contractor who gives the quote should have earlier experience of providing Automatic Sliding Doors (ASD) to government organisation.

“According to the rule, all companies that give a quote on the tender should have previous experience for providing these doors to some other government organisation,” said a railway official on the condition of anonymity.

This rule, said the official, will now be relaxed so that the work begins as soon as possible. “Now the tender will now be awarded to those who might have experience of providing the ASD to a private company or a non-governmental-organisation,” the official added.

These 22 doors will be retrofitted in roughly seven compartments, including the general compartment. Until now the only coach fitted with these doors was a ladies first-class coach, with each door costing Rs 5 lakh.

The concept of retrofitting the coaches with closed-door is based on curbing the number of deaths due falling off trains. The project was also pursued after the biggest lender to the Indian Railways, the World Bank (WB), asked the Railways to take measures for the same if any future loans for Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) were to be sanctioned from its end. The tenders will be re-floated by the end of August with a waiting period of another three months, before this relaxed version is awarded to a company.