Kaveri wrote a blog post

2016-10-17

minutes - words.

Indian Railways to launch glass ceiling coaches with panoramic vista

Indian Railways is all set to introduce Glass Ceiling coaches in India

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Always allured by Swiss Train offering beautiful views, now be ready to experience the same in India too.

Indian Railway announced last week that it is running trials of Glass Ceiling coaches and is likely to introduce soon In two routes

In an attempt to draw tourists, the Indian Railways will come up with glass top coaches, which will be introduced on regular trains in Kashmir Valley and Araku Valley in Tamil Nadu.

Indigenously designed jointly by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), Research, Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO), and Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Perambur (Chennai) these are likely to be introduced in December 2016, with trails starting in October 2016.

aThree such coaches will roll out from ICF, Perambur in December this year. The first coach will be tagged in a regular train in the Kashmir Valley while the other two will be part of some train careening through the picturesque Araku Valley (K K Line, Waltair station) on the South-Eastern Railway,a said Chairman and Managing Director of IRCTC A K Manocha.

The trains having such luxurious coaches giving an aerial view would be decided later, he added. The first of its kind in India, were being manufactured at the ICF, Perambur and each coach would be costing around INR four crore.

aThe basic objective behind such a project is to promote tourism and woo upscale tourists from both India and abroad. There are some trains with glass ceiling in foreign countries, like Switzerland, which enjoy the patronage of tourists. We believe such coaches would also give a fillip to rail tourism in India,a Mr Manocha said.

Giving details of the project, Group General Manager (Infrastructure) IRCTC, Dham Ghaj Prasad, said the coaches with glass top ceiling would be the first of its type in India and would rival the best anywhere in the world.

He also said that aWork on the project started in 2015 with a series of meetings on the specification of the coach design. The first such coach is all set to roll out this month (October) itself. The coaches will be ultra luxurious with rotatable chairs to provide the passengers an aerial view through partly glass ceiling,a he said.

The coaches would have generous leg space and also outfitted with modern infotainment system for the benefit of travelers, he added.

Photo Credit : travelandescape.ca