IRCTC Announces Major Upgrades; All AC 3 Coaches To Be Powered With GPS, CCTV & Coffee Machines

Gone would be the days when harried passengers were seen scouting for charts outside train coaches or using torch to find out their berth numbers at night. As per a massive transformation unleashed by Indian Railways, AC coaches would be now made world-class and passenger friendly.

As per reports coming in, Indian Railways has decided to kick start this modernization drive from AC 3 coaches of Humsafar Express series of trains; the first of which would be flagged off between Delhi and Gorakhpur next month.

Interestingly, all the new coaches would be manufactured at The Rail Coach Factory in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh. Earlier, it was speculated that they would be imported.

Here are the 8 major changes which would be incorporated across all AC 3 coaches of Hamsafar Express in the coming days:

– Above each door of the coach, there would be a GPS based passenger information box, which would be automatically updated as per the journey route. Hence, paper charts would be now abolished, which used to cause much distress and confusion.

– A signature color scheme would be incorporated for all coaches within a train. Design experts are being hired for this operation.

– Inside the coaches, automatic room freshener dispensers would be installed, besides fire and smoke detectors. Hence, no more smoking inside the washrooms from now on.

– All coaches will have tea and coffee vending machines from now on. Hence, the business of tea/coffee vendors at platforms can get affected.

– Stencilled marks of berth numbers would now replaced with light bar above each berth, something like glowing numbering system insider aircrafts.

– The doors inside the washrooms would be now coated with gel which will make them ‘graffiti proof’.

– All the coupes inside the coach would have curtains, which was only provided for AC 2 and side-coupe of AC 3 as of now.

– The small gap between two side-berths has been finally removed. This design of the small gap had bothered rail designers since decades. This change has been incorporated in the 5th train, and all the above changes have been executed in 4 Humsafar trains mainly.

Some other major changes which Indian Rail have recently implemented for improvising includes:

– Water ATMs at all railway stations, where passengers can get water by paying Re 1 to Rs 5

– I paisa insurance for all rail passengers, which was hailed as World’s cheapest insurance policy

– Plans to modernize 100 terabytes of passenger data

– Partnership with Uber for ferrying passengers from/to railway stations

– Joining UPI platform for easy payments via mobile

– Partnership with DRDO for providing high quality foods during travel

However, their decision to make Aadhaar Card compulsory for booking train tickets and their strange decision to introduce dynamic pricing in Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains haven’t gone down well with the regular passengers.

Do share your views on the modernization drive of AC 3 coaches by commenting right here!