New Delhi: In a bid to mitigate train passengers' woes regarding confirmed tickets, the Indian Railways is planning to come out with an alternate.
This has been majorly possible due to the Indian Railways Mission Electrification program.
Railways has initiated a major electrification program for electrifying 100 percent of its Broad Gauge network. Hence, the power coaches which were earlier used for carrying out electric equipment, lights, fans and other prime requisites for the running of the train will now be replaced with passenger coaches.
Now, considering, even if the Railways add two three tier coaches in lieu of the power coaches, it will lead to the creation of almost 144 berths for passengers. This will mean that more waitlist tickets can be converted into confirmed tickets for the passengers.
In order to provide safe, secure and comfortable journey to passengers, Indian Railways has taken numerous steps in the recent past such as provision of lifts/escalators, plastic bottle crusher machines, mechanized cleaning and housekeeping etc. at major stations.
The Economic Survey 2018-19 stated that Indian Railways electrification program would reduce the nation’s dependence on imported diesel oil.
As on 01 April, 2019, Indian Railways has 35,488 Route Kilometre (RKM) of network commissioned on electric traction which constitutes 51.85 per cent of total network and carries 64.50 per cent of freight and 53.70 percent of coaching traffic. The pace of electrification accelerated and a total of 38,000 RKM has been identified for electrification by 2021.
