Indian Railways has taken a huge step towards social inclusiveness. AC 3-tier economy coaches will soon be added to the trains as the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) has dispatched a railway carriage of 15 coaches. Orders have been received from the Ministry of Railways to manufacture 248 AC 3-Tier economy coaches.

The first 3 Tier Economy AC coaches will ensure that middle class and lower middle class will be in a position to avail a more comfortable journey.

RCF GM Ravindra Gupta has sent the orders to Northern-Western Railway (NWR), Northern-Central Railway (NCR) and Western Railway (WR).  He said that RCF has manufactured the first 3-tier AC economy class in just three months. Many changes have been made in the design of these coaches. Each coach has 4 bathrooms keeping in mind the convenience of the differently-abled.

Folding tables and water bottle holders, mobile phone and magazine holders have also been installed on both the seats for the convenience of the passengers. Apart from this, the design of the stairs made for climbing to the middle and upper berths has also changed. There are 83 seats in these coaches as compared to 72 seats in the existing Third AC in every coach.

Rail Coach Factory has had to run the production work with 50 percent staff as per the guidelines of the government during the COVID epidemic. The supply of goods has been affected due to the lockdown in many parts of the country. Due to this, the production of RCF has also been affected.

In each of its coaches, separate reading lights for each berth, as well as mobile charging points, have been provided in addition. In the current fiscal, RCF has a production plan of 248 coaches.

The cost of a coach is 2.75 crores, while the cost of AC 3-tier coaches already installed in trains is 2.85 crores. But no facilities have been compromised in the newly built coaches.