Railway Board CEO and Chairman V.K. Yadav on Thursday said while they did not plan to completely do away with sleeper class coaches, only air-conditioned coaches would be used on select routes where trains would run at a speed of 130 kmph or higher.
The Railways has designed a new AC 3-tier coach, which it is currently testing. It will be introduced next year with fares less than current charges for AC 3-tier.
“Sleeper class coaches will continue ... We are in the process of increasing the speeds of our trains to 130 km from 110 km, particularly along the golden diagonal and golden quadrilateral ... when train speeds will be increased due to wind and dust there might be discomfort in sleeper coaches. Hence, we have designed a new AC 3-tier coach … The fare will be kept somewhere in between AC-3 tier and sleeper with the aim that more people can afford travelling in AC coaches,” Mr. Yadav said during a virtual conference.
Goods sheds
Meanwhile, the Railway Ministry released a new policy for development of goods sheds aimed at augmenting terminal capacity through private participation.
Under the policy, private players will be permitted to develop goods wharf, loading/unloading facilities, facilities for labour, approach road, covered shed and other related infrastructure. The facilities will be developed by the private parties through their own investments.
Railways said the facilities would be used as common user facility, and no preference or priority would be granted to the traffic of the party over the traffic of other customers.
As an incentive under the scheme, private players will be given a share in the terminal charges and terminal access charges for five years. The private party can also earn additional revenue through utilisation of available space for establishing small canteen/tea shop, advertisements etc, the Railways said.