A first: Double-decker coach to ferry passengers and cargo

Vijay C Roy

Chandigarh, July 28

In a first, the Rail Coach Factory (RCF), Kapurthala, a premier production unit of the Railways, will roll out its most-ambitious cargo liner concept, a double-decker coach, by next month. While the upper deck of the coach will have seating space for passengers, the lower deck can be used for transporting goods.

The commencement of the service is expected to give a big boost to time-bound cargo movement, which is major source of revenue for the Railways. “Most probably, we will roll out the first cargo liner concept by next month. This will be the first-of-its-kind double-decker coach in India where there will be space for seating passengers on the upper deck while the lower deck will be utilised for cargo movement. Once completed, it will be put on a trial run by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO), a research and development organisation under the Ministry of Railways,” said Ashesh Agrawal, General Manager, Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala.

According to him, once the trial run is successful, more coaches will be manufactured by the RCF and it will be rolled out on the concept of cargo liners, a regular scheduled service on a fixed route.

This will help the Railways capture the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) and miscellaneous goods market.

Insiders are of the view that with the change of pattern of freight traffic from bulk to small, there is an increased demand for movement of small quantity white goods, especially from the FMCG sector.

In the past couple of years, the Railway Ministry has given an impetus to freight movement, which is the main source of its revenue. This is evident from the fact that during the financial year 2022-23, freight revenue leapfrogged to Rs 1.62 lakh crore, a growth of nearly 15 per cent over the previous year.

He said the RCF would manufacture 16 coaches of the Vande Bharat train in the current fiscal.