Union Minister of Railways & Coal Piyush Goyal laid the foundation stone for a new coaching terminal at Nemom in Thiruvananthapuram division of Kerala on 7 March 2019.

The new coaching terminal will help in decongesting the already overloaded current coaching terminals.

The terminal will facilitate introduction of additional trains to & from Thiruvananthapuram area and remove the congestion being faced at Thiruvananthapuram Central station and Kachuveli.

Coaching lines, Pit lines, stabling lines with shunting neck, integrated sick lines facilities, RRI panel and associated building, connectivity to the proposed Vizhinjam International Container Terminal and booking office are proposed to be provided for operating trains to & from Nemom.

During the event he also unveiled indigenously-built WAP-7HS passenger locomotive capable of hauling 24 coaches train at 160 km per hour. The Indian Railways has undertaken project of upgradation of speed potential of locomotives from 140 km per hour to 160 km per hour.

Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) has upgraded the maximum service speed of the WAP-7 locomotive. The complete design and development of the locomotive have been done indigenously.

To improve the speed of the locomotive, a weight reduction of about 14 tonne has been carried out. Also, the gear ratio has also been changed from 3.6 (72:20) to 3.2 (70:22).

The new type of locomotive is expected to facilitate operation of premium trains such as Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duranto at higher speed.