Chennai: After years of delay, the Carriage and Wagon Workshop, Perambur, completed the refurbishment of the first rake of double-decker Uday Express on March 23 night.
According to the Southern Railway officials, the Utkrisht Double-Decker Air-conditioned Yatri (Uday) Express would run between Coimbatore and Bengaluru soon after announcement.
Southern Railway had introduced double-decker train on April 25, 2013, but the train had been phased out due to lack of spares and poor quality of maintenance.
“The Union Government had announced the upgrade of double-decker trains into Uday express. Initially, three Uday expresses were taken up for renovation,” one of the officials said.
However, Indian Railways has decided to roll out the Uday expresses on Coimbatore-Bengaluru, Bandra-Jamnagar and Vishakhapatnam-Vijaywada routes, the first rake that has been completely refurbished on March 23 would run between Coimbatore and Bengaluru.
Unlike the old double-decker train, the new Uday coaches would have a dedicated vending machine with dining facilities in each of the four coaches. “Due to this, some seats have been removed at few coaches. Additional to that the lavatories are equipped with Jaguar fitting,” the official said.
The train that would serve the executive passengers would also have provisions for infotainment. Passengers can watch videos while travelling by connecting to WI-FI. GPS based passenger information system also included to new Uday coaches.
The railway officials also said that the train would ply mostly according to the schedule of double-decker train. “Uday express would most probably depart at 5.40 am from Coimbatore to reach Bengaluru at 12.40 pm, taking a total time of seven hours. For the return journey, the Bengaluru-Coimbatore Uday Express will depart at 2.15 pm from Bengaluru to reach Coimbatore at 9 pm, taking a total time of 6 hours and 45 minutes,” the official said.
