The Indian Railways will export the first state-of-the-art swanky and modern Diesel Multiple Units (DEMU) train rake to Sri Lanka in a week, rail officials said on Wednesday.

A senior Railway Ministry official told IANS in New Delhi that the newly built DEMU rakes would be sent to Sri Lanka as soon as the cargo ship is available to transport the new rakes.

According to officials from Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, the new rake of the DEMU was handed over on November 12 to the RITES, an Indian Railways’ public sector enterprise focused on transport consulting and engineering.

He said there are three different types of coaches — AC Executive Class, Second and Third Class — and, as per the Sri Lankan requirement, they will only have seating facility.

The first rake is part of an export order of six rakes of DEMU to Sri Lanka. As part of the order, ICF will manufacture six DEMU rakes consisting of 78 coaches in five variants. The order is being jointly executed by RITES and ICF under the India-Sri Lanka economic cooperation agreement.

The ICF official said that the rest of the five rakes would be delivered to the island nation by November, 2019.

“The DEMU rake is powered by a 1,800 HP onboard engine and has a newly-designed stainless steel aerodynamic front end to reduce drag at high speeds,” he said.

There are many first time features in the new DEMU coaches to make it contemporary and at par with Metro trains. The new features include plush interiors, GPS-based passenger information system in all coaches, halogen-free rubber flooring, individually revolving seats and the individual audio controls for AC class passengers, he added.

Each DEMU rake consists of 13 cars in a combination of two driving power cars with economy class seating, two driving trailer cars with economy class seating, two air-conditioned chair cars with rotatable seats, two business class chair cars and five economy class coaches.

The design of the coaches was finalised as per the customer’s choice and ICF has fully geared up to meet the export order in time, the ICF official said.

He said since Sri Lanka has large portions of rail lines along coastal areas, rail coaches are prone to corrosion.

“To prevent this, the car body along with all interior fittings has been made of authentic stainless steel and special paint has been used on the coaches and under-frame to prevent corrosion,” the ICF official said.

“The body of these coaches is painted with special high glass anti-graffiti paint that will be appealing and long lasting,” he added.

The AC first class coach can accommodate 52 passengers, the economy car can accommodate 90 passengers and the Business class coach has a capacity of 64 passengers.