Union Minister of State for Railways Kotla Jaya Suryaprakash Reddy has said that when the first double-decker air-conditioned chair car (ACCC) coaches rolled on the tracks of the South Central Railway connecting Guntur and Tirupati from Kacheguda here soon, the waitlist would vanish.
A long-felt need for more services between destinations such as Guntur and Tirupati from Hyderabad was there and this service would fulfil it, he said, after inspecting the newly-arrived rake of 16 double-decker ACCC coaches at Secunderabad Railway Station on Thursday. While conventional coaches that cost Rs. 1.54 crore each, have 73 seats, the ACCCs cost Rs. 2.86 crore and can carry 120 passengers.
Mr. Reddy said mandatory clearance from the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) and Commissioner-Railway Safety was awaited. This would soon be obtained with one trial run with a team of safety certification officials on board, he said. This rake, made at the Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, was the first to have the advanced VESDA (Very Early Smoke/Fire Detection with Alarm System), he stated.
Asked about the status of MMTS Phase-II that was in a limbo, Divisional Railway Manager-Secunderabad, S.K. Mishra said they were scouting for another agency that could undertake the works.