The AC 3-tier coaches will soon be curtain-less. Indian Railways has decided to do away with the curtains to prevent flaring up of fire in the coaches in case of an accident. The AC-2 tier coaches will, however, continue to have curtains because they are less congested.
The decision to remove curtains has been taken on the recommendation of Commissioner of Railways Safety (CoRS) following its enquiry into causes of fire in Bangalore-Nanded Express train that left at least 26 people dead in Andhra Pradesh in December last.
“In a meeting last month, the Railway Board decided to remove all curtains in aisle of AC 3 coaches. All zonal railways have been instructed to remove them,” said a senior Railway Ministry official.
The zonal railways will remove the traditional navy blue coloured curtains as and when a train undergoes general maintenance works. Though the curtains were made of fire-retardant material, but considering CoRS recommendation, the Board has decided to remove them.
In 2009, the Railways decided to put curtains in aisles of all air-conditioned three-tier coaches to give more privacy to passengers. In order to further improve fire safety mechanism in rolling stocks, the Indian Railways has called a two-day international conference later this month from April 24-25 on fire safety technologies with Germany, France, Italy, the US and the UK as participating countries.