(a) whether the Railways have formulated a policy to phase out 10 thousand AC coaches
following the Montreal Environment Convention;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the Railways have considered the possibility of converting the existing AC
coaches into such coaches that may be run by environment friendly R-134A gas; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI R. VELU)
(a) to (d) Yes, Sir. Railways have already planned to phase out/modify 780 Air Conditioned
(AC) coaches by using R-134a refrigerant to replace R-12 refrigerant by 2010, to comply with
Montreal Protocol. After 1994 Railway have already switched over to manufacturing AC coaches
with environment friendly refrigerant R-22, use of which is permitted up to 2040 as per
Montreal Protocol and the present population of such coaches is about 4200.