The strong ties between India and its southern neighbour Sri Lanka received a boost when a newly ' Make In India ' train rake was flagged of from Colombo Fort Railway station. The rake of the train was manufactured in the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, Transport Minister Arjuna Ranathunga and Indian envoy to Sri Lanka Taranjit Singh Sandhu flagged off a new train to Polonnaruwa from Colombo Fort Railway station.

The train which has been inducted under an Indian Line of Credit has an on-board entertainment system, modular interiors and fully-rotating seats in Air Conditioned Chair cars for passenger comfort.

ICF will manufacture six DEMU rakes consisting of 78 coaches in five variants. The order is being jointly executed by RITES and ICF under the India-Sri Lanka economic cooperation agreement.

Wheels of #India - SL partnership moving swiftly ahead: A new train gets added to the #lka Railway fleet,

HE President @MaithripalaS, Transport Minister Hon. Arjuna Ranathunga and HE Taranjit Singh Sandhu flagged off a new 🚆 to Polonnaruwa frm #Colombo Fort Railway station. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/LjfZGXcw81 — India in Sri Lanka (@IndiainSL) September 11, 2019





Here are the salient features of the train:

The new features include plush interiors, GPS-based passenger information system in all coaches

Halogen-free rubber flooring, individually revolving seats and the individual audio controls for AC class passengers, he added.

Each DEMU rake consists of 13 cars in a combination of two driving power cars with economy class seating, two driving trailer cars with economy class seating, two air-conditioned chair cars with rotatable seats, two business class chair cars and five economy class coaches.

The design of the coaches was finalised as per the customer's choice and ICF has fully geared up to meet the export order in time, the ICF official said.

He said since Sri Lanka has large portions of rail lines along coastal areas, rail coaches are prone to corrosion.

"To prevent this, the car body along with all interior fittings have been made of authentic stainless steel and special paint has been used on the coaches and under-frame to prevent corrosion," the ICF official said.

"The body of these coaches are painted with special high glass anti-graffiti paint that will be appealing and long lasting," he added.

The AC first class coach can accommodate 52 passengers, the economy car can accommodate 90 passengers and the Business class coach has a capacity of 64 passengers.

With Agency Inputs.

Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

Share Via