Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani to get automatic doors, high-tech features

Each coach will have one mother and baby friendly toilet, emergency talkback phones and other lavish facilities; fare would be slightly up

Much like trains in different parts of the world, the Indian Railways will also have automatic door locking and opening mechanism on high-speed trains. One of the first sleeper passenger trains to try it out would be Mumbai Central-New Delhi Rajdhani Express. Earlier, AC locals and Tejas chair car trains had the automatic doors.

In addition, the train will also have many advanced features, and ticket fares would be a little high. An official said the base fare of new Tejas Rajdhani shall be 5 per cent higher than that of existing Rajdhani for the respective classes, in addition to the flexi-fare scheme.

For world-class experience

Gradually, all the 25 Rajdhani Express trains across India will have the newly designed Tejas coaches and would be called Tejas Rajdhani Express. Agartala-Anand Vihar Rajdhani Express was the first to get converted.

The interiors of the train

The ‘Smart Coach’ aims to provide world-class facilities to passengers with the help of an intelligent sensor-based system. On its additional features, officials said the train will have lavish facilities like touch-less fitting, marble finish with an anti-graffiti coating, toilet occupancy sensors, gel-coated shelf, door latch-activated light, new design dustbin, and one mother and baby-friendly toilet in each coach.

CCTV in coaches

Each coach will have CCTV and scroll ‘next station’ LED boards in multiple languages, GPS-based announcements, Wi-Fi and emergency talkback phones — which will help passengers seek immediate help during a medical or security emergency.

The train will also have toilet odour sensors, train’s maintenance schedules, panic buttons, fire detection and alarm, air quality and choke filter sensors and energy meter in coaches.

Five hundred of these coaches are being manufactured at Modern Coach Factory at Rae Bareli and Integral Coach Factory at Chennai. Commuter organisations welcomed the move saying that it was time to have automatic doors in high-speed trains in India.

“There needs to be a beginning and this was a big positive step for passenger comfort as private train operators given permission on Indian Railways will now be in competition as they can order their special class coaches,” an official said.

500 - No. of such coaches being built in India

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