Tag Archives: A K Manocha

Starting December, Indian Railways plans to test-run three luxury coaches with glass ceilings, one on a route in the Kashmir valley and the other two in the Araku Valley in South India. In a bid to attract wealthy tourists, the coaches will have chairs that can rotate, have extra leg space and high-tech infotainment systems, informed A.K. Manocha, Chairman and Managing Director, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). “There are some trains with glass ceiling(s) in foreign countries like Switzerland, which enjoy the patronage of tourists. We believe such coaches would also give a fillip to rail tourism in India,” Manocha said. The move is a part of the government’s attempt to revamp the massive transport system. Dham Ghaj Prasad, Group General Manager, IRCTC explained the coaches with glass top ceiling would be the first of its type in India. “Work on the project started in 2015 with a series of meetings on the specification of the coach design. The first such coach is all set to roll out this month (October) itself. The coaches will be ultra luxurious with rotatable chairs to provide the passengers an aerial view through partly glass ceiling,” he elaborated. Estimated at Rs 4 crore per glass-topped coach, the project spending is estimated around $17 billion (Rs1.21 lakh crore) this fiscal towards this revamp. The Indian Railways this year also announced plans to offer wi-fi hotspots at 100 stations and improve its services via smartphone apps.

The Ministry of Railways has announced a number of measures on the IRCTC website. “Now, a 35-second compulsory wait has been applied before booking an online ticket to prevent faster booking through any other unscrupulous means,” said A.K. Manocha, Chairman and Managing Director, IRCTC, at a combined conference. Sanjaya Das, MD, CRIS, U. Hazarika, Executive Director, C&IS Railway Board and other senior officials from the railway board were present. Manocha said that due to increased demand of e-ticketing and capacity constraint, the Next Generation e-Ticketing (NGeT) System’s capacity to book tickets has been upgraded to book 15,000 tickets per minute. Furthermore, only two tatkal tickets can be booked for single user ID in opening tatkal hours from 10-12 hours. Statistics from the Ministry of Railways reveal that 18,30,21,842 tickets were booked online during 2014-2015. Among the total tickets booked, the share of internet ticketing passengers to total passengers travelled was 54.52 per cent. To further strengthen its Passenger Reservation System (PRS), the Ministry of Railways has taken various measures on the IRCTC website on the lines of internet ticketing, Next Generation e-Ticketing System (NGeT), scripting, and various other security measures to control hacking.