Lalu's dream of 'Garib Rath' soon a reality

Kapurthala, Sep 15: Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad's dream of 'Garib Rath' will soon be a reality as Rail Coach Factory (RCF) rolled out 17 low-cost air-conditioned coaches in a record period of three months.

Railway Board Member (Mechanical) R K Rao, who inspected the 'Garib Rath' coaches manufactured by RCF, rolled out the coaches yesterday for handing over to Northern Railways for their trial run beggining next month.

Talking to mediapersons on the occasion, Mr Rao said after its trial run on some section in the northern region and obtaining the safety clearance, the coaches would be introduced on any one of the four railway sections where the Garib Rath train was planned to be introduced in the beginning.

''The decision to run the Garib Rath on any of the four routes -- Nizammudin-Patna, Nizamuddin-Bandra, Nizamudin-Chennai, Seharsa-Amritsar -- would be taken by the Railway Ministry soon,'' Mr Rao said.

He said the chair cars for Garib Rath were being manufactured by RCF in Chennai and he would inspect them within a fortnight.

RCF acting General Manager Partap Srivastava said these coaches were designed to run at a speed of 130 km per hour, it has mobile charging facility, special facility for physically challenged among other.

The cost of one AC three tier coach for Garib Rath was Rs 70 lakh while it was Rs 1.8 crore for the chair car.

UNI