Mumbai: In view of the ever increasing demand and requirement of the general public towards rail travel, the Railways is also speeding up the expansion of facilities accordingly. In this sequence, the Railways has added about 600 new additional coaches of general category (GS) in various trains in the last three months. All these coaches have been added to regular trains.
By November-2024, more than one thousand such coaches of GS category will be added to about 370 regular trains. According to an estimate, about one lakh passengers will be benefited daily by the addition of these new GS coaches in the fleet of Railways. Apart from these, work is going on at a fast pace to include a large number of non-AC class coaches in the railway fleet in the next two years.
The Railway Board has given detailed information about the new facilities for general class rail passengers. Dilip Kumar, Executive Director (Information and Publicity), Railway Board said that general class passengers are among the top priorities of Railways. Indian Railways is working in various directions to provide maximum facilities to the passengers of all categories.
Under this, a total of 1000 new GS coaches will be added to the trains during the three months from July to November. Also, these newly built coaches have been added to 370 regular trains. Thousands of additional passengers are getting benefitted from this every day. With the inclusion of these coaches, about one lakh additional passengers will be benefitted daily.
The Executive Director(I&P) said that in view of the facilities of general class passengers, the construction of new GS coaches is going on at a fast pace. He said that in the next two years, more than 10 thousand such non-AC general class GS coaches will be added to the railway fleet. More than six thousand of these will be GS coaches, while the rest of the coaches will be sleeper class.
With the inclusion of such a large number of non AC coaches, about eight lakh additional passengers of general class will be able to travel by train every day. All these newly built non AC coaches will be of LHB type.
Apart from making the journey comfortable and convenient, it will also help in making it safe and fast. Compared to traditional ICF rail coaches, these new LHB coaches are relatively lighter and stronger. In case of an accident, the damage to these coaches will also be minimal.
Dr. Swapnil Nila, Chief Public Relations Officer, Central Railway, said that CR is all set to add additional 90 GS Coaches in 42 trains which will benefit more than 9000 additional passengers per day. This will make a huge difference to rail travellers given the ever increasing demand of passengers.
