The new >Anubhuti coaches may be rolled out from the rail coach factory in Rae Bareli, the constituency of the UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
This is a proposal under the consideration of the Railway Ministry.
Another option is to have such coaches manufactured at each of the coach factories, including Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala and Integrated Coach Factory, Chennai.
Interiors
The new proposed coaches of the Indian Railways with better interiors — termed as Anubhuti or experience — may be priced about 40 per cent higher than the AC chair car.
These coaches will have about 50 seats in one coach as against 56 in the executive class coaches.
Improved facilities
“They would have much better interiors, more space for a person, improved lighting, upgraded toilets, automatic opening and closing of internal doors, roller blinds as curtains, LCD video screen, amongst others,” Keshav Chandra, Member-Mechanical, Railway Board, said recently.
Shatabdi trains
The plan is to place one Anubhuti coach in each of the Shatabdi trains that ply on a range of about 400 km, with a travel time of four-six hours.
The Executive Chair Car coaches cost about Rs 2.5 crore.
These coaches will cost another Rs 30-40 lakh extra.
Mock-ups
Coach interiors of Anubhuti would be on the lines of mocks designed by West Central Railway Coach Rehab Workshop, Bhopal, for other coaches.
The mock-ups of improved chair car, AC 2 tier, and AC 3-tier coaches were at the coach care centre near New Delhi Railway Station. Two Vadodara-based vendors — Kemrock Industries and Exports and Hindustan Fibre Glass Works — have supplied raw material for the new coaches.
Mock models of Anubhuti coaches have not been designed yet, said Railway officials.