In an innovative move, the South Eastern Railway has decided that it will not discard old passenger coaches and utilise them for transporting goods, officials at Garden Reach, headquarters of South Eastern Railway said.

Of the 150 unserviceable coaches that are set to be used, 148 will be converted by the Kharagpur workshop of South Eastern Railway by the end of this month, they said.

Chief public relations officer of South Eastern Railway Sanjay Ghosh said there were a good number of coaching vehicles in different zones attached to passenger trains, which are 15 to 20 years old.

“Since the railway is increasing the speed of trains by upgrading the rakes from conventional ICF to LHB advance type coaches, such coaches are planned to be withdrawn from passenger service. To properly utilise such assets, this modification work was planned,” Ghosh said.

He said instead of discarding the old coaches, railways have found a new technology to convert these coaches so that they can be used for goods trains.

Officials at SER's commercial department revealed that for converting each coach, the cost comes to around Rs 10 lakhs.

"After conversion, the life of the coach increases up to 10 years. At the same time, the railways will also make substantial savings, as the cost of a new VPH (high capacity parcel van) coach is around Rs.1.65 crores," explained an official at SER's commercial section.

After conversion, the carrying capacity of modified coaches will become 14 tonnes, which will be able to run at a speed of 110 kmph.

Such modified and redesigned coaches can be utilised for transportation of vehicles, including tractor, two and four wheelers.