CHENNAI: Following stiff opposition from passengers and several political parties, Southern Railway on Tuesday scrapped its proposal to reduce the number of sleeper coaches on the Chennai-Tirunelveli Nellai Express and the Chennai Egmore-Sengottai Podhigai Express.
However, the revised coach compositions for other trains, including the Chennai-Coimbatore Cheran Express and Chennai-Mettupalayam Nilgiris Express, will proceed as planned.
An order from the transportation branch of the Madurai railway division confirmed that the existing coach configurations for the Nellai and Podhigai Express trains — comprising 8 sleeper coaches, 5 AC three-tier coaches, 2 AC two-tier coaches, and 1 first-class AC coach — will remain unchanged.
The earlier proposal had suggested reducing sleeper coaches from 8 to 7 and increasing the number of AC three-tier coaches from 5 to 6, which stands cancelled, revealed the order issued by the Senior Divisional Operational Manager of the Madurai division.
On Tuesday, TNIE published a report highlighting how the proposed change would have reduced the availability of sleeper class berths while increasing the number of higher-fare AC berths.
Earlier in the day PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss had strongly criticised the railways’ decision to reduce the number of sleeper coaches.