Railways planning to reduce Coach weight: Lalu

Hyderabad, Apr 16 (UNI) Railway Minister Lalu Prasad today said plans were afoot to reduce the weight of every coach to four tonnes in future.

Speaking at the 52nd Railway Week celebrations of Indian Railways organised by the South Central Railway here, Mr Prasad said ''there is a need to reduce the weight of each coach to four tonnes.

The bringing down of the coach weight will reduce the production cost as well as fuel consumption in daily operations.'' The Railways was also planning to manufacture coaches with light weight metal like aluminium, he said adding authority had been given to the General Managers of Railway zones to take up railway work costing up to Rs 100 crore by inviting tenders independently.

UNI