Despite the push for a Mumbai suburban railway upgrade after the Mumbra tragedy that claimed the lives of five passengers, railway officials are sitting on the already approved idea of operating special out-of-timetable trains in a circuitous route. Passenger associations on Wednesday questioned why no one in the railway administration was taking the plan ahead on a pilot basis, following which Mumbaikars could decide on its implementation.

This move, if implemented on an experimental basis, will help Central Railway (CR) Mumbai’s system in a big way by paving the way for local train services. The idea is being dodged by various zones, and the question now is who will bell the cat?

“If it is benefiting the Mumbai suburban rail network, the railways should experiment with it and allow stakeholders to decide. They should try out the experiment and assess the situation… whether it can work out on a larger scale,” Siddhesh Desai of the Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh, told mid-day.