Kongu Express gets a swanky revamp under project Utkrisht, flagged off

Coimbatore: With better sanitation facilities and upgraded amenities, Kongu Express, to which the first rake of coaches refurbished under Project Utkrisht was fitted, was flagged off from the Coimbatore Railway Junction on Sunday.
The train, on the Coimbatore-Hazrat Nizamuddin route, is the first train to be flagged off by the Southern Railway under the project. The coaches were refurbished at a cost of Rs 60lakh.

It was flagged off by senior-most employee of the mechanical department Peter in the presence of station director of Coimbatore Satheesh Saravannan and senior divisional mechanical engineer in Salem S Mukundan.

“In order to improve the condition of coaches used in mail and express trains, the ministry has decided to upgrade 66 trains, each comprising of 140 rakes. A train service per division was selected to use the rake of the refurbished coaches. A total of six trains, comprising of 10 rakes, were selected in Southern Railway,” said an official with the Salem division.

The upgraded trains are painted apricot yellow and blood red. “To improve the services, toilets will be cleaned even when the train is running, collection and disposal of garbage will be done periodically and provision for onboard housekeeping will be done based on service requests from passengers through the Coach Mitra application,” the official said.

“All coaches have bio-toilets, soap dispensers, dust bins, health faucet and flushing valves. The toilets have epoxy flooring,” the official added.