Mumbai Metro Line 4 will offer eight to 10 mobile charging points in every coach, giving passengers on the Wadala–Kasarvadavli corridor access to a facility that is absent from the trains operating on the Aqua Line 3.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which is developing the Green Line 4, said the charging points would be provided in all new Alstom trains being supplied for the corridor. MMRDA Metropolitan Commissioner Dr Sanjay Mukherjee told Mid-Day that the trains would also include bicycle racks.
“Be it cycle facilities or mobile chargers, in the new Alstom trains of Green Line 4 there will be eight to 10 charging points available in every car,” Mukherjee said, according to the report.
The charging points will be distributed along the length of each train so passengers can use them while remaining seated, an official said. The facility is intended to support commuters undertaking long journeys across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, where mobile phones are increasingly used for work, digital payments, navigation and communication.
The announcement follows complaints from passengers about the absence of charging points in the trains operating on Mumbai Metro’s Aqua Line 3. Those trains, also manufactured by Alstom, do not have the facility. In contrast, trains on Yellow Line 2 and Red Line 7, manufactured by Bharat Earth Movers Limited, include mobile charging points inside the coaches.
According to the report, the omission from Aqua Line 3 trains was a deliberate decision linked to concerns about electrical safety incidents involving charging points in train coaches elsewhere. The latest decision for Line 4 therefore represents a separate specification adopted by the procuring authority for the new rolling stock.
Alstom officials said the requirements for passenger amenities are set by the organisation procuring the trains. The trains are then manufactured with the facilities specified by the purchaser. A source at a train-manufacturing firm said amenities such as charging points and bicycle racks are generally decided and communicated during the design and procurement stage, rather than being left solely to the manufacturer.
Line 4 will connect Wadala with Kasarvadavli and is one of the major metro corridors being developed in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. The final availability of the charging facility will depend on the delivery and commissioning of the new Alstom trains specified for the corridor.
