New Delhi: Indian Railways is planning to upgrade all the trains, which can run at a maximum speed of 130 kmph and above, to provide them with special air-conditioned coaches. These trains will not have sleeper class coaches as all the non AC coaches will be upgraded to AC coaches.
While informing about the move, Spokesperson of Ministry of Railways said, "AC coaches have become a technical necessity where ever the speed of the train is going to be above 130 kmph. Indian Railways is working on a massive plan to upgrade the railway network to high-speed potential ."
"Track on golden Quadrilateral and Diagonals are being upgraded to cater to the speed of 130-160 kmph. Non AC sleeper coaches would be replaced by AC coaches only for such trains which will be running at 130/160 KMPH," he added.
The Ministry also clarified that Non AC coaches will continue to run in trains running at 110 KMPH.
Currently, the maximum speed of most of Mail/Express trains is 110 kmph. While premium trains like Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and Durontos are allowed to operate at 120 kmph on significant parts of the Golden Quadrilateral and Diagonals. The rakes for these trains are fit to operate at 130 kmph, which Railways is trying to gear up in Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah sections.
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"AC coaches are essentially a technical need for trains running on 130/ 160 kmph. Speed potential of some of the corridors have already been upgraded to 130 KMPH. Wind and weather factors demand that only certain type of coaches can run on higher speed. It is therefore NOT to be miss construed that all the non AC coaches will be made into AC coaches," said Ministry's officials.
A prototype of AC Coach at Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, is being made and it will be ready in a few weeks. These upgraded trains will have an 83 berth coach, while there are 72 berths in a sleeper coach.
"It is planned to have 100 coaches this year and 200 next year. The coaches will be evaluated and experience gained from the running of these coaches will lead to further progress," said the Railway official.
These new AC coaches will be “economical coaches” similar to AC-3 chair car coaches with rationalised fare structure.
"It will be ensured that while the price of tickets of modified AC Coaches remains very affordable for the passengers. The comfort and conveniences will increase manifold and there is a substantial reduction in travel time," said Railway Ministry's spokesperson.
