First A/C DEMU train launched in Kochi

As a first and in a bid to decongest the booming traffic, the Railway minister Suresh Prabhu flagged off India’s first diesel electric multiple unit (DEMU) train service with an air-conditioned coach in Kerala’s buzzing Kochi city.

The Angamaly-Ernakulam-Tripunithura-Piravom train service is expected to help in reducing traffic congestion in the state’s fastest growing city.

“It is for the first time in a DEMU service, we have provided air conditioned service. We want to increase it further,” Prabhu said at a function in Ernakulam Junction.

According to top railway officials, this new coach is equipped with passenger-friendly facilities in the form of reclining type comfortable cushion seats for 73 passengers similar to air-conditioned chair car of inter-city express trains.

Other coaches of DEMU train are provided with bench type cushion seats and large windows with glass shutters. The train also has bio-toilets and fully vestibule for free movement of passengers between coaches.

The DEMU after the inaugural service would be withdrawn temporarily and replaced with MEMU (mainline electrical multiple unit) train till the completion of renovation work of Harbour Terminus and Old Railway Stations, informed the minister.