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Modern AC coaches for general trains

     New Delhi: The Railways will introduce a better designed and passenger friendly AC 3-tier coaches for general trains also. Minister of State for Railways R Velu today said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha that railways has started manufacturing state-of-the-art Air Conditioned (AC) coaches with increased capacity.

     "Indian Railways have always endeavoured to improve upon the passenger coaches to make them as passenger friendly as possible. Design changes towards this objective is a continuous process," he said. Newly introduced AC 3-Tier coaches for "Garib Rath" Express trains have also been designed with a higher passenger, carrying capacity of 75 persons as against 64 berths in the conventional AC 3-Tier coaches being run until now. All passenger amenity items viz., snack tables, bottle holders, mirrors, magazine holders, improved illumination using Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL), and mobile charging sockets have been provided and comfort of passengers taken due care of these coaches. Two rakes of such coaches have already been manufactured at Rail Coach Factory (RCF), Kapurthala / Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, Velu said. Furthermore, by increasing the overall height of the coach shell, a new AC 3-Tier coach design and layout is presently under consideration of the Ministry of Railways wherein the passenger carrying capacity is expected to be further enhanced to 81 passengers per coach. The railways is also developing a highly advanced, foolproof protection and warning system that can prevent the possibility of train collision due to driver's error. "Pilot implementation of Signalling based Train Protection Warning System (TPWS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) based Anti-Collision Device (ACD) is in progress to prevent the possibility of train collision due to driver's error and station staff error," he said. TPWS is being installed in Delhi-Agra and Chennai-Gummidipundi sections over Northern, North Central and Southern Railways. While ACD is being tried out in Katihar-New Jalpaiguri-Guwahati- Tinsukhia-Dibrugarh section on Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR).

     Saying that the Indian Railways keeps taking measures to prevent train accidents commensurate with the technology available, Velu, however, added the effectiveness of these systems could be commented upon after their performance evaluation under Indian conditions, final testing and commissioning.
-Dec 7,  2006

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