Railways increases production of non-reserved coaches  

 

Strap: 

Richa Sharma

Facing criticism for introducing large number of Vande Bharat trains and increasing AC and First Class coaches, Indian Railways has plans for the production of 2,500 non-AC coaches in FY25 to address the huge demand of passengers travelling in sleeper and unreserved categories.

During summer vacations and peak festive seasons, there have been complaints from passengers with unreserved category tickets boarding AC coaches due to heavy rush. The public transporter faced the wrath of people for not introducing enough sleeper and general class coaches to cater to the huge demand in this segment.

As of December 18, the Indian Railways runs 68 Vande Bharat rakes, providing 136 trips daily, and there are plans to have Vande Bharat sleeper services by next year.

Responding to queries in parliament, Railway Minister Ashwani Viashnaw said Indian Railways constantly endeavours to cater to the travelling needs of all cross-section of society by operating different types of services with different composition, which includes both Non-AC and AC coaches.

Of the total number of coaches being presently utilised for running train services, approximately two-thirds are non-AC, and one-third is AC variants.

According to the Railways, in order to provide greater accommodation for the passengers using general and non-AC sleeper coaches, the extant policy regarding composition of mail/express trains, provide for 12 general class & sleeper class non-AC coaches and eight AC coaches, in a train of 22 coaches, thereby providing greater accommodation for the passengers using general and non-AC Sleeper coaches.

“With a view to augment the accommodation for passengers travelling in unreserved coaches, more than 900 general class coaches have been attached, in the mail/express trains operating with LHB (Linke Hofmann Busch) coaches, during the current financial year. For FY25, the production target of non-AC coaches in 2,500,” the minister informed in a statement to the Parliament on Wednesday.

Further, keeping in view increased demand, Railways has provisioned to manufacture 10,000 non-AC coaches including general class and sleeper class coaches for next two years.

Additionally, Indian Railways have introduced Amrit Bharat services, which are equipped with modern features and passenger amenities like Semi-Permanent couplers for jerk free travel, horizontal sliding windows, foldable snack table and bottle holders, mobile holders etc. These fully non-AC trains comprises 12 sleeper class coaches and 8 general class coaches.