India’s First Bullet Trains Will Be Equipped With Breastfeeding Rooms

While the Indian public space is questionable with the number of toilets it offers for women, women utility public spaces in the country are even more rare. However the newly introduced Indian bullet trains are set to be more inclusive of women’s needs.

According to a report by IndiaTimes, the first of India’s bullet trains, which will go into service on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed corridor will have baby changing rooms; comprising baby toilet seats, tables for diaper disposal and a low sink for children for washing hands and a multi- purpose room which can be used for breast feeding! Besides, there will be two extra-spacious toilets for wheelchair-bound passengers in the 10-coach high-speed train.

The 731-seater train which will take about two hours seven minutes to travel a distance of 508-km between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, will be equipped with an entirely new kind of toilet system - urinals, western-style toilets with hot water, washing closet seat facility and separate washrooms for men and women with triple mirrors for make-up.

The Indian Railways is all set to acquire 25, E5 series Shinkansen bullet trains (first of its kind) from Japan at an estimated cost of Rs 5,000 crore for the Narendra Modi government’s bullet train project.

Achal Khare the managing director of the National High Speed Rail Corporation, which is executing this ambitious bullet train project, which will be completed by December 2023, tells Times Of India that the fares for this project will “have to be less than what airlines are offering.”