MUMBAI, Sept. 5 -- The Indian Railways have done a quick pivot and switched their plan to procure 238 air-conditioned (AC) local trains, so that they can be configured as 15- or even 18- car locals, rather than as 12-coach trains. The amended plan was presented to the state government two weeks ago by the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC), with an eye on Mumbai's swelling railway commuting population. It was among many infrastructure projects cleared by the state cabinet on Wednesday. These trains, which will be made up of 2,856 coaches, will be introduced on both the Western and Central railways' suburban sections. Tenders for the new coaches will be floated this month. Railway officials said the current fleet of AC locals comprises 12-car trains, which cannot be expanded by adding coaches. However, the 238 new AC locals will be built to be run as 15 or 18-car trains, provided the supporting infrastructure, such as platforms, the signalling system and tracks, is modified to accommodate them. The proposal to procure 2,856 AC coaches is under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) and will cost Rs.21,000 crore. "Keeping crowding in mind, we are making a provision to reconfigure 12-car AC trains into a single 18-car vestibule train," said a railway official. Sources said the proposal has undergone a few changes including a cost escalation of 9% to procure AC locals, as the plan was drafted around 2019. "We will call tenders for 2,856 AC coaches which can be configured as 12/15/18-car trains, depending on future needs. Moreover, to promote 'Make in India', there will be no loan component in the plan and the cost will be shared equally by the state government and Indian Railways," said a senior railway official. Earlier, the 238 AC locals were to be procured under MUTP-3 (47 AC locals) and MUTP-3A (191 AC locals), which are partly financed by multilateral development banks, where other projects under MUTP will have the loan component. Once tenders are called, it will take 6-8 months to finalise manufacturers and it could be 6-7 years before the first such AC local arrives. These vestibule trains will have cushioned seats, cooler air-conditioning and mobile charging points, as reported by Hindustan Times on August 15. Also cleared by the cabinet on Tuesday were the expansion of rail lines in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and beyond. This includes the Panvel-Vasai, Asangaon-Kasara and Badlapur-Karjat corridors, at a cost of around Rs.15,000 crore. The expansion of the Pune-Lonavala suburban rail corridor was also cleared at a cost of Rs.5,000 crore. Railway officials said they had made a presentation to the Infrastructure Committee of the state government for MUTP-3B, which has now been approved. They will now send the presentation to the Ministry of Railways and other relevant ministries for final clearances. For the new Panvel-Vasai suburban rail corridor, one of the critical additions would be two elevated rail flyovers from Vasai, one each towards Virar and Borivali. This will allow local trains to directly travel towards Churchgate and Dahanu. Work is also underway for a new suburban rail corridor on the Panvel-Karjat section at a cost of Rs.2,782 crore. It is expected to be ready by March 2026....