11 April,2016 07:25 AM IST | | Shashank Rao
Central Railway’s silly ideas keep flowing. Authorities will soon be offering people an opportunity to have their life-sized mannequins exhibited in the train’s coaches
After finding no takers for the Rs 10,000 tickets for a last ride in the 1,500-volt Direct Current (DC) train, the Central Railway has come up with another way to cash in on this opportunity and raise money for drought-hit farmers. They have decided to offer people a chance to get their life-sized mannequins made by paying a certain price and those will then be placed in the DC train coaches that will be up for public display at various places in Mumbai.
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The last 1500-volt Direct Current train was painted and numbered the same way as the old DC trains
The authorities have not decided the amount they will charge for each mannequin, which is likely to be made by JJ School of Architecture. "We will be creating space for 900 mannequins inside these coaches. People interested can pay a token amount for the same," said SK Sood, General Manager, CR.
Also Read: No pre-bookings for Rs 10,000 ticket on CR's last DC local ride
Sources said the idea behind this step is to make the train and the system memorable. The CR authorities will also be approaching famous industrialists and celebrities across various fields with a similar offer.
The coaches will be parked at P D'Mello road at CST, Wadi Bunder, Thane and the National Rail Museum in Delhi. To keep the old DC trains alive, they had put the same numbers, colours on the last one as the old ones. It had also been repaired and the door bolts, knobs and switches were changed.
Meanwhile, CR sources claimed that they had increased the ticket price to R10,000 so that the last ride doesn't get too crowded and they don't have trouble managing it. But this plan backfired, when despite getting over 450 enquiries, no one bought the ticket.
The last ride
After the landmark ride from Kurla to CST - which began 5 minutes late at 11.35pm - stopped at all stations, where music bands were seen playing and people dancing.
Read Story: End of an era: Mumbai's last DC local train gears up for final run
A group of rail enthusiasts, who had come from across Maharashtra to commemorate the 91-year-old train system, were disappointed with the arrangement. "The CR had initially promised to show the entire power conversion on the big screen at CST. But then plans changed and the screens were removed," said A Mitra, rail fan who along with others went to Vashi to see the conversion process on both CST-Panvel Harbour and Thane-Panvel Trans Harbour routes.
Growth ahead
The CR authorities will add a rake, which will allow them to run 10 services from today. They also plan on adding 40 more services by May once they make 12-car Harbour trains.
