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    AC travel in Railways to soon become more comfortable

    Synopsis

    Railway Board in a circular has told its zonal offices to refurbish AC coaches in every sixth year along with the periodic overhauls.

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    Fares for the AC trains have increased significantly in the last few years, but the facilities have not improved in the same proportion.
    Your travel in the AC coaches of Indian Railways is likely to be more comfortable soon. The national transporter has decided to refurbish all the AC coaches every six years to give a premium and comfortable feel for the passengers.

    Railway Board in a circular has told its zonal offices to refurbish AC coaches in every sixth year along with the periodic overhauls. As per the plan, all AC coaches including two-tier AC, three-tier AC, first class and chair car will be refurbished during the sixth year from the date of induction. Both old ICF coaches and modern Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches will be covered under the project. The cost of refurbishing is likely to be around Rs 10 lakh per coach.

    Fares for the AC trains have increased significantly in the last few years, but the facilities have not improved in the same proportion. The railways was forced to take this decision as it was flooded with complaints with poor condition of facilities in AC coaches. With this revamp, the railways plans to enhance the life of the coaches and provide better passenger comforts.

    In 2017, then railway minister Suresh Prabhu had initiated a project to refurbish all 40,000 rail coaches including sleeper coaches at a cost of around Rs 30 lakh each by 2022-2023. Under the initial plan, coaches were to be revamped by modifying berths, installing reading and LED lights, modular bio-toilets, fire and smoke detection system, more mobile and laptop charging ports and small LCD screens in Shatabdis.

    But the project is now been modified due to paucity of funds. Due to shortage of funds, Railways has now decided to currently revamp the AC coaches in the first phase.


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