Indian Railways flaunts swanky new coaches, pumped up with features

The Indian Railways have maintained their own unique reputation. Leaving the not-on-timely arrivals and departures aside, their hygiene horrors have earned the Indian Railways a front page space for frequent updates. Most of the main-stream trains are not kept well, the coaches are unclean and the washrooms are hazardously unhygienic. Well all that is about to change, it will be too soon to say but still let me quote, ‘Gone are the days of stinky trains and gone are the times of discomfort; Now the trains are refurbished with a lot of money, at least now we hope to have a safe journey’.

The Indian railways unveiled refurbished train coaches. The 12-15 year old coaches were repaired and modified with the aim to introduce new amenities and enhance safety measures. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu expressed that the ministry will continue to initiate and execute newer plans in order to provide the passengers with an aesthetically appealing and safe journey.

To begin with the new coaches are painted with a new colour scheme inside-out . The interiors of the coach are pumped up with a new look and host of new features. New composite panels inside passenger area provide better aesthetics. Redesigned ladders are provided to climb up to upper berths in all sleeper coaches. Side berth passengers are provided with newly designed snack tables. Curtains are replaced with powered venetian blinds and roller blinds in FAC and ACCW coaches respectively. All the coaches are provided with fire extinguisher and dust bins.

A host of new light fittings and electricity plug points are added for passenger convenience. The berth reading lights, embarking light and LED berth indicators assist passengers travelling in night. For passenger safety electrical junction points are moved to non-passenger area in a centralised distribution board. In addition to all of the new things, the washrooms on the coaches are refurbished too. New modules exhaust fans, big mirror, platform washbasin, controlled discharged water tap, odour control system comprise of the new features.

The coaches have been refurbished at the Carriage Rehabilitation Workshop in Bhopal. The railways spent around INR 25lacs on each AC-1 for the refurbishment process. Estimated cost for the refurbishment of the planned 111 coaches will be around INR 31.5 crore.

By looking at the images the job looks neat and tidy, but for how long it will be maintained is the question. Would the passengers misuse the new provisions? or How long would the new provisions be in place? Would there be any fare hikes? Well there are a lot of questions to be answered for now, which will in a matter of time. Till then stay tuned for more updates.