Govt plans to revive President’s railway saloon
NEWDELHI: The country may be yet to decide on its next President, but the railway ministry is already planning a ₹ 8-crore railway saloon for the winning candidate to move around in. The state-owned transporter will present a proposal in this regard for the new President’s approval in July.
Using a German coach, the presidential saloon will have bulletproof windowpanes, a 20-line telephone exchange, plasma colour televisions, GPS and GPRS systems and satellite communications.
It will also have a modular kitchen and a public address system. Past presidents – from Dr Rajendra Prasad to Dr Radhakrishnan and Dr
Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy – travelled in twin carriages of ceremonial saloons built in 1956 on as many as 87 occasions since Independence.
Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was the last to journey in the saloon in 2006. It was in the same year that the regal carriages – complete with a conference hall, lounge, study rooms and a cabin for the President’s military secretary – were declared unsafe for train operations.
The Railways – in its 2007-08 budget – sanctioned Rs 6 crore for manufacturing a new presidential saloon. But, President Pranab Mukherjee’s secretariat cited security concerns – in addition to possible disruption of passenger traffic – to reject the plan in 2008.
“If the new President desires, the Railways can build the new saloon soon,” Arun Arora, chief mechanical engineer at Northern Railways, said.
The Railways has 62 airconditioned and 222 non-AC saloon coaches that can run on broad gauge tracks, and two AC and 24 non-AC saloons meant for metre gauge tracks.
These are maintained for the railways minister, ministers of state, senior railways officials such as railway board members and railway zone general managers.