While the ministry is keen that all rakes for these 23 services be completed by the end of March 2017, officials dna spoke to said it was unlikely, given that there was just about 6 months to go for the current fiscal to end.
In its new timetable that came into effect on October 1, the railway ministry has announced 23 new services comprising its new train brands – Tejas, Uday, Humsafar and Antyodaya, all of which come with new coach designs.
While the ministry is keen that all rakes for these 23 services be completed by the end of March 2017, officials dna spoke to said it was unlikely, given that there was just about 6 months to go for the current fiscal to end. The most optimistic view was that since the new time-table was effective till September 30, 2017, it was just about possible that at least some of the services might be in place. dna takes a look at how the new plan is shaping up, especially since the railways has not been the biggest spender on design research.
Big dreams, small funds
One of the major reasons the railways is struggling with new train coach designs, said officials, is the less amount of spending on design research. In response to a parliament query on May 4, 2016, minister of state for railways Manoj Sinha stated " While no specific allocation is made for research on re-design of coaches, under Plan Head Railway Research, around Rs 2.81 crores were allotted by Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in the last 3 years, (2013-14 to 2015-16) for development of various design related projects." The last major change the railways brought about in design was the introduction of the LHB coaches- the kind seen in the Rajdhani and Duronto rakes- but that was a Transfer of Technology (ToT) from Alstom-Germany. Re-designing of coach sub-assemblies and components is continually undertaken by RDSO and design centers of coach Production Units of Indian Railways, Sinha said in his Parliament statement.
Three premium Tejas rakes by March looks unlikely
The ministry wants three Tejas rakes by March 2017 so that the three services announced could be started. Since the rake will be one with the most advanced interiors for any Indian train, however, the construction will take time. As of now, the Rail Coach Factory-Kapurthala has been able to furnish just one coach.
"It will have entertainment screens behind every chair, which takes time to master," said a railway official. They are also cagey as the final product needs to be good, since it was Tejas that railway minister Suresh Prabhu called "the future of Indian train travel", in his railway budget speech. The three Tejas routes chosen are CST-Karmali, New Delhi-Chandigarh and Anand Vihar-Lucknow.
Double-decker UDAY will not be a sleeper
Despite the fact that Utkrisht Double-Decker Air-Conditioned Yatri (UDAY) is an overnight express, it will not have sleeper arrangements, said top officials. This might be a dampener, as the three routes chosen for UDAY are ones where travel time is anything between 8-15 hours. "It might be tough for a lot of people with back problems as well as aged commuters," admitted an official. The three routes chosen for UDAY are Coimbatore-Bengaluru (425km), Bandra-Jamnagar (813km) and Vishakhapatnam-Vijayawada (9,350km).
Who is making what
The construction of these rakes has been divided between Rail Coach Factory-Kapurthala, Modern Coach Factory-Raebareli and Integral Coach Factory-Chennai. According to officials, RCF-Kapurthala will make a Tejas rake, three UDAY rakes and five Antyodaya coaches, the latter being unreserved trains with vestibules. MCF-Raebareli has been given a production schedule of five Hamsafar rakes and two Antyodaya rakes. The rest of the quota is with ICF-Chennai.
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