India has given luxury railway coaches for the ongoing railway projects in Sri Lanka. All these coaches are designed according to the requirements of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has got these state-of-the-art coaches under an agreement of Rs 600 crore between the two countries. However, India has signed this agreement with Sri Lanka to help Sri Lanka in the development of railway infrastructure.
Recently Indian Railways has sent a consignment of 20 passenger coaches to Sri Lanka Railway. According to a statement issued by the Indian High Commission in Colombo, state-of-the-art coaches have been transported to the neighboring country by Rail India Technical and Economic Service.
On September 17, 20 passenger coaches have reached Colombo port. However, the consignment is part of a contract with Sri Lanka Railways to supply 160 passenger coaches. For this, the US has given a loan of $318 million to India and is funded through India. The cost of this first consignment is US$ 82.6 million.
According to the statement, these state-of-the-art coaches have been made in India and the requirements of Sri Lanka Railways have been kept in mind while manufacturing them. These coaches are manufactured at Integral Coach Factory, Chennai. Of the 160 passenger coaches, 60 have been supplied to Sri Lanka Railways so far. While 20 more are ready to be dispatched from India. PSU-RITES Limited is also ready to supply two air-conditioned DMUs to Sri Lanka under the Indian Line of Credit of US$ 318 million.
The first AC DMU set with 13 coaches is ready to be shipped from India and is awaiting the ship's nomination by Sri Lanka. Also, some of the other projects under this agreement include the up-gradation of the railway line from Mhow to Omanthai (128 km long), the signaling project from Mhow to Anuradhapura, double-tracking of the rail line from Polgahawela to Kurunegala, etc.
