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New Delhi: Indian Railways has decided to embark on a new journey. Except for some slow moving local and passenger trains, all trains will only have air-conditioned carriages. According to a report by Economic times, a new model from the national airline suggests that the current sleeper-class coach with 72 berths will be replaced by a more compact AC coach with 83 berths.
The fares for the new coaches will be slightly lower than the current AC fares but higher than the dormitory class ticket. The new coah, built at the Kapurthala de Ferrocarriles factory, is currently under test.
The publication quoting the Chairman and CEO of the Board of Railways, Vinod Kumar Yadav, mentioned that the policy change from berth to air conditioning is in line with the railways’ plan to increase the speed of approximately 1,900 postal and express trains to 130 kmph by 2023 in the Golden Quadrilateral section and then to 160 km / h in 2025, forcing the ditch of sleeper coaches that could be slowed down by wind and dust during acceleration. The measure is to make the trip more convenient and safe, he added.
“Once all express and mail trains run at 130 km / h or more, non-air-conditioned carriages will create technical and other problems due to wind and dust. Therefore, we will phase out all of them. non-air-conditioned cars on some 1,900 mail and express trains … It’s a great exercise and we will do it in a phased manner, “Yadav told the business daily in a telephone interview.
He further added that there was a need for a massive restructuring of the zonal and divisional railroads to break down departmental silos, the merger of eight existing production units into two and the improvement of internal capacities to manufacture high-speed coaches. He says that the process of building an aluminum-based light rail prototype, which will eventually replace the rakes used at Vande Bharat Express, has already started at the Modern Coach Factory in Raebareli.
“We are planning to restructure in such a way that each zone has four distinct verticals: infrastructure, rolling stock, operation and maintenance, and finance as it is now on the board. The same reforms must eventually go to the divisions and then to the level of the maintenance depots where depot managers will be authorized, “Yadav said.
