Union Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu on Sunday flagged off the Humsafar Express — the country’s second such luxury train to be flagged off so far —through video-conferencing from Mumbai and said that several developmental projects in North-East like doubling of railway lines, electrification and capacity augmentation have got fresh impetus with active monitoring and participation of the Government.
The Humsafar Express will connect Kamakhya railway station in Guwahati with Bangalore cantonment. Humsafar Express, the all-AC affordable ‘luxury’ train for common man, have all air-conditioned 3-tier linke Hofmann Busch (lHB) coaches developed by Alstom lHB GmbH of Germany and produced by Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthala, which has facilities like Global Positioning System (GPS) based passenger information system, odour control system, fire announcement system etc.
The Humsafar Express is designed keeping comfort of passengers as primary goal and is incorporated with many new features to make travel luxurious but affordable. The seats are made more comfortable and laptop mobile charging points been provided next to each column of berths.
A GPS-based display system at each end of the coaches shows real-time information about the exact location of the train and the distance from the next station. The side berths have been provided curtains to enhance passenger privacy and Khadi linen would be provided to passengers.
“Perceptible changes are taking place in Indian Railways in terms of delivery of quality service, progress of developmental projects and redressal of public grievances which all are component of Good Governance,” Prabhu said while adding that earlier the northeastern region used to get the benefits of development at the last but the scene has been reversed and the region now gets all the benefits first.
Minister of State for Railways, Rajen Gohain who also present along with Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal at a function to mark the flag off of the train at Kamakhya railway station, in his speech said that many proposal for removing infrastructural bottleneck of the region are under consideration at the Ministry.
“There are many proposal under consideration of the Railway Ministry including a second railway bridge near Saraighat Bridge, a new railway bridge at Silghat and boubling of the New Bongaigaon– Rangiya–Kamakhya railway line,” he said.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbanada Sonowal thanked the Railway Minister for his initiatives in developing railway services like electrification and doubling etc. for the benefit of the people of the Northeast. “The future will see India shining through the northeast,” Sonowal said.
It may be mentioned here that each of the coaches of Humsafar Express has modern toilets with plush interiors. The odour control system has been integrated with the toilet flush in such a way that each flushing releases perfumes. Apart from these, three odour control systems are also fitted across the aisle which releases perfumes periodically. In line with Indian Railway’s vision to keep tracks defecation free, the coaches have been fitted with bio-toilets.
The train has an extensive fire and smoke detection system with six CCTV cameras and 10 smoke detectors and four heat detectors fitted in each coach. The exterior of the train has an attractive visual appeal with anti-graffiti vinyl coating.