The movement of modernising Indian Railways, has come one more step forward with the announcement of all mountain railways in India will now have vistadome coaches. The development has come up with the purpose of providing wide panoramic view to the passengers and enhancing their travelling comfort at the same time.
Last week launching the project the Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said, “This is another attempt by the Indian Railways to add to the passenger experience while promoting tourism in the country.”
Indian Railways has a number of scenically beautiful routes and these coaches being featured with large windows on the sides and glass panels on the roof allows passengers to capture them with a better viewing experience.
The Nilgiri Mountain Railway is the latest addition in this direction while four mountain railways have been provided with the facility before. Golden Rock Workshop, Tiruchirappalli has taken the responsibility of transforming two meter-gauge coaches to vistadome coaches for Niligiri Mountain Railway.
The vistdome coaches that presently in service in India are :
◼ 4 in Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
◼ 2 in Kalka-Shimla Railway
◼ 1 in Kangra Valley Railway
◼ 1 in Matheran Hill Railway
In addition, order for another hundred Vistadome coaches has been given to the concerned production unit of Indian Railways, is confirmed by Mr. Goyal. He added that in the next three months, there are plans of manufacturing or equipping 18 more coaches to vistadome ones for Kalka-Shimla, Kangra Valley, Patalpani-Kalkund section (in Madhya Pradesh) and Mailani-Nanpara section (in UP). And another 69 more such coaches will be planned in 2019-20 to make it 100.
Further the mordernisation project of Indian Railways also include the effort of imparting airport like look to the stations.
190 stations have been selected for the purpose and 100 stations have already been upgraded till date. With the target of being completed by April this year, work at other stations is progressing at a rapid pace in this regard. In this attempt the stations are to be illuminated with LED lighting which will ensure better security of the passengers.
Morndernising Indian Railways also includes the launching of the e-Office project which will enable the national transporter system to shift from its manual filing setup to E-office for its day to day activities. The project will benefit millions of employees of Indian Railways by enhancing transparency, increasing accountability and promoting innovation.
