New Delhi, July 26 (IANS): As many as 6,511 new general coaches have been added to the Indian Railways fleet over the past five years from 2019-20 to 2023-24 to make travel easier for the common man, Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw stated in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

The existing policy regarding the composition of Mail/Express trains, provides for 12 General class & Sleeper class non-AC coaches and 8 AC-Coaches, in a train of 22 coaches, thereby providing for greater accommodation for the passengers using General and non-AC Sleeper Coaches, the minister said.

Of the total number of coaches being presently utilised for running train services, two-thirds are non-AC, and one-third are AC variants. Keeping in view increased demand, Indian Railways has planned to manufacture 10,000 non-AC coaches including General Class and Sleeper Class Coaches, he explained.

The minister stated that Amrit Bharat services, which have state-of-the-art technology are equipped with advanced features like semi-permanent couplers for jerk-free travel, horizontal sliding windows, foldable snack tables and bottle holders, mobile holders etc., have been introduced by Indian Railways (IR).

At present, 4 Amrit Bharat Express services viz. 15557/58 Darbhanga–Anand Vihar Express and 13433/13434 Malda Town - SMVT Bengaluru Express, are being operated over the Indian Railways network. Besides, the introduction of train services, including Amrit Bharat services, is an ongoing process on IR subject to traffic justification, operational feasibility and availability of resources, the minister added.