Swanky German rail coaches to replace present ones in a big way

The days for brick red or blue coaches of the Indian railways are numbered as swanky and state-of-the-art German coaches are being inducted in a big way.

Danapur (Bihar), July 22 : The days for brick red or blue coaches of the Indian railways are numbered as swanky and state-of-the-art German coaches are being inducted in a big way.

The German coaches, which first came to India in the year 2000 and were used in the Delhi-Lucknow 'Swarna Shatabdi Express', are now being manufactured at Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthala in Punjab.

Plans are now afoot to soon induct the coaches, equipped with modern amenities in the Delhi-Patna Rajdhani Express, and 17 coaches have already arrived at a yard in Danapur railway yard.

This happened after the responses about the new coaches were 'encouraging' both from technicians and passengers. Two trains, Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata Rajdhani Express trains were fitted with these new coaches earlier.

The coaches were initially imported, but are now being jointly manufactured under the technology transfer clause of the agreement that Indian Railways signed with German firm ALSTOM-LHB in 1995.

Apart from looks the coaches have several safety facilities. They are made of fire retardant material and have disc brakes attached for the safety of the passengers.

"The new coaches take care of three parameters - passenger amenity, safety and transport economics. State of art technology has been used in the coaches and has quantum jump," said Animesh Sinha, a senior mechanical engineer posted at Danapur railway station.

The toilets in these coaches match with those in aircrafts having pneumatic control container, which would discharge the waste outside the station only.

The new coaches are equipped with hot cases and deep freezers, and are provided with four emergency windows and spring-loaded doors.

India's rail network, the largest in Asia, carries more than 15 million people daily - more than the combined population of Norway and Sweden - but its safety record often comes in for criticism.

According to government estimates, the return on rail investments is nearly three times that of other transportation investments.

ANI