Shatabdi all set to have 3 more coaches

Aarti Kapur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 24

To reduce the long waiting list of passengers of the Shatabdi (12005/12006), the Northern Railway authorities are all set to add three more coaches to it from tomorrow. Three air-conditioned chair car coaches will be added to the New Delhi-Kalka Shatabdi (12005) from tomorrow. The Kalka-New Delhi Shatabdi (12006) will also have three coaches from November 26. Each coach has a capacity of 78 persons. In all, 234 seats will be added to the Shatabdi. In the existing Shatabdi, there are 12 coaches, of which two are executive class and 10 air-conditioned chair car coaches.

Ambala Divisional Commercial Manager Parveen Gaur said it would be a permanent feature in the Shatabdi. She said the Shatabdi was already a popular train which usually had a long waiting list and the additional coaches would provide relief to the passengers.

She said extra coaches had been mooted for more trains, but the proposal was pending with the Northern Railway. Ambala Division had mooted a proposal for adding coaches to three long-route trains, which ply from Chandigarh to various destinations. For train number 12232, which plies from Chandigarh to Lucknow, the division had demanded one air-conditioned coach, four sleeper coaches and a general coach. For train number 14218, which plies from Chandigarh to Allahabad, there was a demand for adding three sleeper coaches.

Another train for which additional coaches had been demanded keeping in view the long waiting list was the Chandigarh-Lucknow train (15012). One two-tier air-conditioned coach, one three-tier air-conditioned coach and six sleeper coaches had been demanded for the train.

There was a proposal for a new passenger train from Chandigarh to Hisar following a demand from the passengers.