NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways is planning to induct about 40,000 coaches with improved interiors and upgraded facilities at an estimated cost of Rs. 8,000 crore to provide world-class comfort to passengers.
Refurbished coaches will have improved interiors, upgraded facilities, improved seating arrangement and newly designed bio-toilets. The expected cost for retrofitting is about Rs. 30 lakh per coach. The target for completing the same is in the next five years.
“The aim is to make available 40,000 new-look coaches in the railway fleet by 2023”, said a senior Railway Ministry official involved with the project.
Railways will also manufacture 15,000 new coaches with modern features during 2018-19 and 2022-23 periods.
For the safety of passengers and to prevent capsizing during accidents, the safety features in all existing conventional coaches will be strengthened by equipping them with strong centre buffer couplers (CBC). CBC enhances safety by providing anti-climbing features. It would cost about Rs. 28 lakh to equip CBC in a coach.
Rail transport is a commonly used mode of long-distance transport in India, especially for passenger travel. Although Indian Railways have progressed a lot, both quantitatively and qualitatively, during the last few years, this system is still plagued by a number of problems which require immediate attention. Therefore, in a bid to provide world-class comfort to the passengers and prevent the mishappenings, Indian Railways has put forward this plan for the improvement of Railways in India.
