Supplied Tejas coaches not up to the mark: Northern Railways

A week after the railway coach factory (RCF) situated at Kapurthala handed over the 19 rail coaches of the Chandigarh-Delhi section of the Tejas Express to it, the Northern Railways found discrepancies and electrical glitches in the coaches.

The railways has now sought rectification from the RCF, besides planning to reconsider if the Tejas will run on the original route or on a different route.

The RCF had handed over the coaches to the Northern Railways on June 26 against the proposed date in May.

“When we received the coaches, some systems were malfunctioning. We had done a pre-departure inspection in the coaches and found some issues with electronics on board. They were not functioning as we wanted them to,” said Nitin Chowdhary, chief public relations officer of Northern Railways.

“We have asked the RCF to send their engineer to rectify the systems and now the decision is pending with the ministry. We have also asked the Delhi railway board to conduct a survey to see if the train should run on the original Chandigarh-Delhi plan or a different route because we are already facing a shortage of Shatabdi coaches in the entire north region.”

However, RCF stated that Tejas coaches were turned out of its plant without any discrepancies and electrical glitches. RCF also claimed that it has not received any communication from Northern Railways, seeking its assistance to rectify the systems.

If started between Chandigarh and Delhi, the Tejas train will cut down travel time between the two cities by over 30 minutes. Three Shatabdi Express trains are plying between the national capital and Chandigarh, which takes three-and-half hours to cover the journey.

The advanced coaches are capable of running at a speed of 200km per hour, but due to track-related constraints, the speed on the Chandigarh-Delhi section would be 160kmph.

The RCF had added more features to the new coaches, including remote-controlled Venetian windows, provision of vacuum toilets as in aeroplanes to save water and sensor-based automatic doors inside compartments. Other features include luxury chair cars with LED screens and personalised infotainment system, touch-less sanitary wares like taps and soap dispenser.

An RCF official, Sunil Kapoor, said each seat in a coach has an attendant call facility and the bell is integrated with the reading light. “The executive chair car seats have adjustable headrest and arm support facilities. The coaches have aesthetically pleasing interior fitted with PVC film,” Kapoor said.

(The story has been updated)