As part of a major makeover initiative aimed at improving its main and habour suburban networks, the Central Railway is examining an ambitious `20,000 crore plan to improve its services including acquisition of 150 new rakes and introduction of additional routes and adequate parking lines.

Interacting with the media at the Mumbai Press Club on Thursday, Central Railway General Manager Akhil Agrawal said: “We are studying a report submitted by a committee on ways and to improve the suburban services and will take an appropriate decision”.

The committee, which had come to set up at the instance of Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, who expressed shock after a video clip of an accidental death near Thane went viral, has noted that ten people die daily on CR tracks and the basic reason for this is the huge demand-supply gap.

Among other things, the committee has cautioned that the situation with the existing stock can be “explosive” by 2030 as the number of casualties will multiply manifold due to open doors on the trains, the committee stresses the introduction of air-conditioned  trains and door closures for locals. much before the Western Railway. He indicated that the Central Railway would introduce air-conditioned local by the end of this year. Agrawal said the Central Railway had taken various steps like increasing frequency of trains, introducing 12 coach rakes which resulted in fall in deaths on tracks due to various reasons over the past eight months to 1,414 as compared to the figure of 2,187 over the previous year.