Indian Railways Unveils New ‘Swarn’ Rajdhani Coaches
In its efforts to overhaul old and damaged coaches of all trains, the Indian Railways on Wednesday unveiled its new ‘Swarna’ coaches of the Rajdhani Express. The new coaches come with facilities such as ‘auto janitor’ system in toilets and LED lighting. The Railways has decided to upgrade Premium Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains under ‘Operation ‘Swarna’. The new Swarna coaches have initially been provided in the Sealdah-New Delhi Rajdhani.
The first rake of Sealdah-New Delhi Rajdhani with improved features has been pressed into service on November 28, 2017. The expenditure of about Rs 35 lakhs has gone into this rake, which is less than Rs 2 lakh per coach. The Eastern Railway runs two Rajdhani Express trains and one Shatabdi train which were identified for its upgradation to ‘Swarna’ standard. The key features include completely painted interiors with an aesthetic international colour scheme and LED lighting to improve illumination.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb9LfR7_yKY
The Key Features of the new coaches are as follows:
- The new coaches are being painted to an aesthetic International colour scheme and LED lighting to improve illumination
- Better hygiene is being maintained by providing ‘auto janitor’ system in toilets
- Night signage for easy identifications of berth numbers for enroute entraining passengers.
- Built in ladders for First AC passengers for easy access to upper berth
- CCTV cameras in doorway area and aisles to monitor any suspect activity with data storage.
- The added features in toilets are: vinyl wrapping of toilet doors for improved aesthetics, poxy coating, provisioning of extra mats to improve hygienic standards and to give a dry toilet to the passengers with improved cleanliness, and
- Polished commodes and basins to make them odour free in every trip.
It has been reported that the passenger initiative will be extended to another three rakes of Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani, two rakes of Sealdah- New Delhi Rajdhani and one rake of Howrah-Ranchi Shatabdi express. The Zonal Railways were given a free hand to develop and innovate to create aesthetic and passenger friendly coach interiors on running rakes to establish new standards in passengers comfort. Reports state that the Eastern Railway has conceptualised the improvement to be sustainable, ergonomic and user-friendly. Features were introduced on three pilot coaches in service to gather passenger feedback and assess journey worthiness.