GUWAHATI, June 28 - As part of the nationwide drive to give a new vibrant look and to improve passenger experience, the Maligaon-headquartered Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has also intensified the exercise for repainting of the coaches in the mail and express trains operated by it.
Speaking to The Assam Tribune, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of NFR Pranav Jyoti Sharma said that all the conventional coaches in the zone will be repainted within the next two years.
�The new colour scheme has been introduced as per a decision taken by the Railway Board. It has been taken up to improve the aesthetics and give a better travelling experience to our passengers,� Sharma said.
As part of the exercise, conventional coaches are being repainted. The makeover involves painting the coaches in apricot yellow and blood red colour combination in place of the old pin craft blue and satin blue combination. The blue colour in the train coaches had been introduced in the 1990s and many experts had suggested that a makeover was overdue.
Sharma said that the coaches are being turned out with the new colour scheme during their periodic overhaul at the workshops located at New Bongaigaon and Dibrugarh.
�We expect to cover all trains, which use the conventional coaches made at the Integrated Coach Factory (IFC), under the new scheme in the next two years,� he said.
All the conventional ICF-made coaches are periodically overhauled at the workshops and during the process they are be coated with the new colours under the programme.
�All �Utkrisht� trains have the new colour scheme. Moreover, the coaches being turned out from the workshops are having the new colour scheme and are being attached to various trains. The number of such coaches in the trains will keep on increasing gradually,� Sharma said.
However, due to lack of coach integration in most of the Indian Railways� system, not all coaches of a particular train can be repainted at the same time. Instead, individual coaches are being given the new colours whenever they are sent to the workshops for periodic overhaul.
The new generation Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches are not part of the project. The LHB coaches have distinctive colour patterns of their own, Sharma added.
NFR will also upgrade its mail and express rakes under Project Utkrisht, which includes installation of swachh rail toilets in coaches, besides introduction of features like LED panel lighting, new types of bottle holders, Braille signage, night glow stickers and new types of fire extinguishers.
