NEW DELHI: Indian Railways will give train coaches a makeover and do away with the sombre dark blue colour and repaint them in grey and light blue, similar to the Shatabdi, to give them a fresh look. The Railway Board has given the go-ahead for repainting all 55,000 Integral Coach Factory (ICF) coaches. The first set of coaches of mail and express trains sporting the new colours is expected to roll out this year. “The existing colour palette of dark blue with the light blue band on the window was found to be dull and the need for more vibrant colours was felt,” said a senior railway ministry official.
“The coaches will be repainted in a phased manner when they come for periodic overhaul, which is every 12-18 months. There will be no extra financial burden on the Railways as the cost of repainting remains the same, at Rs 60,000 per coach.” Dark blue coaches were introduced in the late 90s by the Railways to replace the brick red colour that had been in use for decades.
The new colour scheme for ICF coaches, conventional passenger coaches operational since 1950, comes when the Ministry of Railways has decided to stop manufacturing them from April 1, 2018. “Indian Railways has decided to only manufacture Linke Hofmann Busch coaches from the next financial year. Replacing 55,000 coaches will take time, and it was thought the colour scheme can be changed when they come in for the annual overhaul,” said the official.
A similar colour scheme with grey, navy blue and yellow was chosen by the Railways for its new coaches for the semi-high speed sectors clocking 160 kmph. These are being manufactured by Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala. In 2015, the Ministry of Railways had roped in Delhi-based National Institute of Fashion Technology and Ahmedabadbased National Institute of Design (NID) for providing designs for modern coaches.
NID was asked to design new ladders for upper berths, lighting, interiors, toilets and userfriendly coaches. The Railways had provided `10 crore to NID to complete the work in 10 years.