India's first air-conditioned double-decker rail coach developed in Kapurthala

Kapurthala (Punjab), Feb 26(ANI): The Rail Coach Factory (RCF) of Kapurthala boasts of developing a prototype of the country's first air-conditioned double-decker coach.

The officials of the factory claim that the double-decker coach has been completed in a record time of eight months.

The RCF started preparing such coaches after Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee announced in her Railway Budget speech in 2009 that AC double-decker trains will be manufactured to cope up with heavy rush of commuters.

RCF's General Manager Pardeep Kumar said that the preliminary testing of the double-decker prototype has been conducted successfully, and it would be rolled out next month for trials.

"We have made India's first double-decker AC coach in the RCF. We have completed a prototype of the coach and the first stage of testing of the coach has also been completed successfully this month. Earlier also, double-decker coaches were made but they did not have any AC and had some or the other manufacturing problems. So, we have overcome all those problems and made this coach with a completely new design," Kumar said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced that Indian Railways would introduce double-decker trains as a pilot project.

"India's Railway Minister announced that two trains would be running between Delhi and Kolkata as a part of the pilot project. Depending on the response, the project will be further extended in terms of number of coaches," Kumar said.

Kumar further said that after the successful completion of the oscillation trails by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO), the RCF would start manufacturing double-decker coaches for trains.

The new coach shell design is capable of running at a speed of 160 kilometer/hour, and it will be 1.5 feet higher than the normal coach and will have a seating capacity of about 130. (ANI)