Indian Railways To Manufacture 2.5K Additional Coaches; A Bid To Meet Growing Demand

Have you seen viral videos of overcrowded train coaches during long-haul journeys? Videos of ticketless passengers cramming inside reserved and air-conditioned coaches are going viral on social media platforms. Netizens are demanding solutions to this major chaos. In the middle of these updates and reports, we came across news of Indian Railways’ plans to manufacture coaches and launch special trains to meet the major demands and provide proper travel experiences to passengers.

Indian Railways Plans To Produce More Coaches To Manage Demand

One of the most impactful solutions to control the present situation is increasing the number of trains running in different places, especially on busy routes. Ashwini Vaishnaw is taking major steps to manage the rush of travellers. According to a report by The Times of India, the Railway Minister shared a proposal to run special trains in different stations. He has asked the concerned teams and officials to start planning the positioning of these trains.

The minister chaired a review meeting with general managers and divisional railway managers of different zones to take steps to resolve the problems of crowded trains and focus on trains’ operations, increasing coaches, and more. He has directed officials to start working on augmenting general and sleeper coaches’ manufacturing. The plan is to steadily progress and complete 2,500 coaches by the end of 2024. Also, he advised officials to work on launching clone express trains on busier routes, according to a report by Hindustan Times.

The Times of India report stated that the special trains will run at the same stations but at different times. According to plans, these are supposed to reach stations and carry passengers about half an hour before or after the timing of in-demand trains. This new decision is to accommodate the present uptick in passenger footfall. Infrastructure capacity has not been officially confirmed and announced yet. Officials will start focusing on it soon.

Also read: Indian Railways Fines 22 Passengers In Agra Division For Littering With Food Packets; Collects ₹2,400

The government is working to start providing Vande Metro operations too. The present update of this project is that the coaches have been manufactured. Trials are likely to begin soon.

Here’s More Information About The Special Trains

• Reports claimed that about 1,000 special trains will likely run annually.
• Just like any long-haul express train, there will be general and sleeper coaches. In fact, expectations are that these coaches will be higher in number in these special trains.
• The best part is that there will be air-conditioned coaches as well.
• The ticket prices of special trains and the ones running currently will be the same.

Additional trains are needed currently. Recently, passengers with reserved tickets could not board a train to Howrah at the Chennai Central station. The gates were obstructed and jammed by ticketless travellers.

Also read: “Please Refrain From Sharing Old Videos,” Northern Railway Responds To Video Of Overcrowded Vande Bharat

Also, a recent viral video showed passengers sleeping near the toilets on Chhattisgarh Express and blocking the way for others to move or use the bathrooms.

These are all the necessary updates on the upcoming plan of action.

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