Newly designed interiors for coaches are ready at the workshop in Bhopal Newly designed interiors for coaches are ready at the workshop in Bhopal

This Diwali, India’s train passengers might get a surprise upgrade from Indian Railways, which is finally ready to hit the refresh button on some of its decades old, worn-out coaches.

Newly designed interiors for coaches are ready at the workshop in Bhopal with some help reportedly from the National Institute of Design. Judging by the prototype, they look nothing like the trains people are used to at the moment.

From General and Sleeper to AC-I, II and III, it’s going to be new for all classes.

Right from the design of the berths and seats to the toilet fittings, the stress is now on optimizating space and integrating a slickness in the look and feel of the trains.

So, the berths are now supposed to be more ergonomically designed with emphasis on accessibility. Upper berths will come with newly designed ladders while accessories from bottle holders to dining trays are being redesigned from scratch.

The toilets — a pet peeve of passengers — are designed in a way that is easy to clean and remain dry.

The illumination of the coaches, too, have been rebooted to eliminate the ‘oh-so-90s’ feel passengers are used to. So tubelights and bulbs will give way to strategically placed LEDs.

The proposed colour scheme is supposed to liberate the designers and break the monotony. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had instructed Railways to come up with a colour scheme that reflects the character of India with a design theme of “One India One Railway”.

Before rolling out the final product, Railways will be engaged in a brainstorming session with designers and professional coach manufacturers from nine countries, including China, Japan, Spain, Italy, Australia, Germany and England in a seminar on Friday and Saturday. The inputs will form part of the final design and help shape a long-term design policy. The subject of discussions will be “Rail Coach Interiors: Innovation,Safety, Comfort”. The idea is to incorporate the most up-to-date design solutions from the best in the world and make Indian coaches as future-perfect as possible.

Sources said the ministry is considering running at least one full train with the new coaches for trial.

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