Development of Effective Ventilation System for Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) Train for Mumbai Suburban Railway

In the Island city of Mumbai, the Suburban Railway System operates 2500 EMU trains each of 9 or 12 cars and 6.3 millions passengers commute per day. It is considered to be the lifeline of the city. In the morning and evening peak periods loading in each EMU coach is around 500 passengers i.e. 4500 passengers per 9 car train. This is the highest in the world and reflects travel under extremely crowded conditions. During peak periods ventilation, which is practically non- existent, is a serious problem faced by the commuters. Now new EMU trains, each of 12 cars, are being procured under a World Bank funded Mumbai Urban Transport Project. Improvement to ventilation has been taken up as a challenge and as an opportunity to meet the long pending demand to make travel comfortable. After designing, manufacturing and extensive field trials, a new Forced Ventilation System has been successfully provided in these trains. The paper describes complete details of the system.