Going by its tried and tested “play on volumes” theory, the Indian Railways is preparing to unveil passenger coaches with higher seating capacity and freight wagons with increased carrying volumes as the big idea in the forthcoming Rail Budget on February 26.

While he gets set to dole out a populist budget (indicating that fares will not be hiked), Union Minister for Railways Lalu Prasad Yadav plans to increase the capacity of Garib Rath coaches from 75 to 81 seats per coach and also extend the idea to non-AC sleeper class coaches.

“Leaving out the first four Garib Raths, which had been announced in the previous year’s Budget, all Garib Rath trains to be introduced will have 81 seats per coach in the AC three tier category,” a top Rail Bhawan source informed.

The Minister’s idea to connect all state capitals by Garib Rath trains is will also be taken into consideration in this year’s Budget despite the fact that the two coach-manufacturing factories at Kapurthala and Chennai are hard-pressed on resources to churn out the new Garib Rath coaches. While the ministry has decided to increase the number of coaches to 26 in passenger trains, it is also planning to introduce fully air-conditioned double-decker trains to further enhance the carrying capacity. In a bid to optimise the utility of its freight trains, the Railway Ministry is also planning to raise the height of wagons. “There is a plan to run longer freight trains with 58 wagons instead of 40. The length of the wagon can be reduced to accommodate more wagons and that can be compensated by increasing its height,” a source said. Having manufactured a prototype of a passenger coach with an increased height of 4381 mm from 4213 mm at Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthala, the Railways has already tested the coach by running it on select routes.

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