Indian Railways To Replace Sleeper Coaches With New AC Coaches With 83 Berths In Coming Years

In a major development, the Indian Railways is set to replace all its sleeper class coaches with air-conditioned ones in the years to come, at least in mail and express trains which cover a large part of the long-distance rail travel in the nation, reports Economic Times.

Indian Railways plans to have air-conditioned coaches with 83 berths supplant the existing sleeper coaches with 72 berths in trains except for slow-moving passenger ones and locals. The move is aimed at bringing comfort to the travel experience.

Making the development public, Railway Board's chief executive VK Yadav also shared that the policy change is aligned to the Railways' decision to raise the speed of trains to 130 kilometres by 2023 in the golden quadrilateral stretch, and then to 160 kilometres per hour by 2025.

For the goal to be achieved, the replacement of existing sleeper coaches is important as sleeper coaches could be slowed down by wind and dust during the acceleration phase.

The new coach has been built by the Railways' Kapurthala factory, and it is presently undergoing trial.