Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on July 08 confirmed the launch of India’s first ‘steam engine’ theme-based train soon. A heritage special train, which will run on tourist routes, resembles a vintage steam locomotive-pulled train. The Railways Minister also inspected the ‘heritage specials’ train at the Chennai Central Railway Station.
With the looks of a traditional steam locomotive train, it will be run on electricity and will soon be introduced on heritage routes in the coming months. The special train would have three air-conditioned executive chair cars and one air-conditioned pantry and a restaurant coach.
Train built using 'steam engines' as theme
Elaborating on the concept, Vaishnaw said the Railways had planned to introduce a new concept -- 'Heritage special' which would be built using 'steam engines' as the theme. "The steam engine as we all know, is very emotionally connected to us and even though it is not running today, we thought we can create a new concept that looks like a steam engine but actually operates by electricity," he told reporters.
'Heritage special'
The Minister said that this concept of heritage train using steam as a theme was presented to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he believes in the concept which is 'virasat bhi, vikas bhi' which means 'heritage' and 'development' should go together. "This new concept has been created as heritage special, I thank the very good technical officers, staff and Golden Rock Railway Workshop, Tiruchirappalli, Perambur, and Avadi who have all contributed in creating this concept," he said.
He further said that the special train would be first tested on long heritage routes and later it would be open for tourists in two-three months. "We will first try this and then manufacture more of this. In another two or three months, it should get into public use. Basically, our testing on the ground is complete, we received the safety certificate for it. we will be running it on longer routes and then take it into regular commercial operation" he said.
'This is more of a modification of the existing things'
When asked about the funding went for developing this concept, he said, "This is more of a modification of the existing things, the boiler is newly constructed. it is not very expensive." On the operation of the North-South corridor for freight trains, Vaishnaw explained that the Ministry is working with a 'comprehensive programme' like which are the major sources of cargo, what are the major destinations for the cargo.
"That is the approach we are following. What railways is thinking is that we are now looking at strengthening the existing (freight) corridors," he said.
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