India to Ramp up Production of General and Non-AC Coaches

Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that India will produce about 17,000 general and non-AC coaches over the next five years. Speaking in the lower house, the minister claimed that throughout the past few years, there has been a significant growth in the number of general class coaches, which are sought after by lower-income families.

“About 70% of the total 82,000 coaches are general class and non-Air Conditioned (AC),” he said while noting that seat-wise, almost 78% of the 69 lakh seats offered by the Indian Railways are under the non-AC and general class categories. “We have taken up a program of manufacturing 17,000 general coaches and non-AC coaches,” Vaishnaw added. The Indian Railways operated an average 13,940 passenger trains every day in 2024-25, up from 13,169 trains in 2019-20. In response to a question concerning the implementation of India's in-house Automatic Train Protection technology, Vaishnaw stated that Kavach has already been implemented on 1548 Route Kilometres (RKm) on both the North Central Railway and the South Central Railway.

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Regarding Vande Bharat trains, the minister stated that the Indian Railways network now has 144 Vande Bharat train services in operation. In fiscal years 2024–2025 and 2025–2026 (until June 2025), the overall occupancy of Vande Bharat Express trains was 102.01% and 105.03%, respectively. In 2024–25, there were 651 crore passengers in ordinary or unreserved coaches, up from 609 crore the previous year, according to government figures. According to an official release, Indian Railways has launched Amrit Bharat trains that are entirely non-AC. These trains now have eight sleeper class coaches and eleven general class coaches. A plan to produce 100 of these trains is presently in progress.