There is bad news for Mumbaikars and Punekars when it comes to the Tejas brand of upmarket train travelling envisaged by the railways. Contrary to reports in certain sections of the media, the railway ministry in reply to a dna query made it clear that there was no plan to run a Tejas train between two of Maharashtra's biggest cities.

In fact, several departments involved in the Tejas concept told dna that the plan is at such a nascent stage that the colour scheme for the Tejas brand submitted by the Railway Design Centre to the railway board is still to be accepted. The RDC is a joint venture between the Ahmedabad-based National Institute of Design (NID) and the Indian Railways.

In reply to a dna query, Mohammad Naim Shaikh, designer and studio-in-charge of the RDC confirmed the development. He said that a 20-member team is working on the colour concept of the Tejas as well as some other recently-announced brands like the Antodaya, Deen Dyal, Hamsafar, Uday and Smart coaches.

The authorities at the Rail Coach Factory at Kapurthala in Punjab which will be making the Tejas coach told dna that currently no Tejas rake is under construction there. "There is a 20-coach rake that we are building which will be capable of speeds of 200kmph. It will have several firsts like metro-style plug entrance doors, entertainment screens behind every chair, a bigger vestibule, and very upmarket interiors and new sort of seats. Work on 4 coaches is currently on. It will have 14 chair cars, 3 executive cars and 3 power cars," said an RCF official.

However, the officials maintained that this rake started getting built even before railway minister Suresh Prabhu's Tejas announcement — made during the budget speech on February 25 this year. "Moreover, the Tejas brand is a 130kmph rake while we are building a 200kmph rake. There is a vast difference," said an official.

Even Central Railway officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the chances of a Tejas on Mumbai-Pune is remote. "The line runs through the ghat section. Currently, the maximum speed capacity of the tracks is 105kmph on the route with the Karjat to Lonavla ghat section having a maximum speed of 60kmph. Upgrading the tracks to 130kmph will take a long time so chances of a Tejas even in the future doesn't look bright," said a CR official.

What is Tejas brand plan

Touted as the future of travelling in India, the Tejas brand of trains will have aircraft-like interiors, Wi-fi and on-board entertainment all provided by a single service provider for better results. Prabhu believes the trains will have a clientele between cities which see heavy rush due to business reasons. The 9 sectors identified by the railways are Delhi-Agra, Delhi-Chandigarh, Delhi-Kanpur, Nagpur-Bilaspur, Mysuru-Bengaluru-Chennai, Mumbai-Goa, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Chennai-Hyderabad and Nagpur-Secunderabad. Incidentally, Mumbai-Pune is not one of the nine identified routes.