29.5.12

Mumbai rakes to get paan friendly colours

Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation’s (MRVC) experiment with white-and-purple rakes has come to an end after they were introduced on the suburban rail network in 2007. The rakes have become an eyesore with paan and gutkha stains on the exteriors as they are difficult to erase or dilute even after an intensive wash at maintenance yards. The railways use around 500 litres of water to wash a rake, and the average cost of cleaning one 12-car rake is Rs 25,000. 
A senior MRVC official said, “We have awarded fresh consultancy to the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, for a new colour scheme for the 72 rakes that are to be delivered next year.” NID will choose a colour scheme keeping in mind the new rakes will have a stainless-steel body, as against corten steel in the earlier ones. 
 MRVC officials said they had told NID to choose colours closest in shade to the old, reddish brown-and-yellow rakes as they camouflaged the stainsto a large extent. Seventy-five white-and- purple 12-car rakes had been procured under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project up to 2011. 

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