Northern Railways introduces 'baby berth' to support mothers

The Indian railways has introduced foldable ‘baby berths’ to facilitate mothers traveling with infants. The feature was introduced on the occasion of Mother’s day.
The initiative — a collaborative effort of the Northern Railways' Lucknow and Delhi divisions —has been introduced as a pilot project in AC three-tier (194129/C) B4 coach of superfast express Lucknow Mail 12230 on berths number 12 and 60.

Based on the feedback of passengers on the "new product", plans will be drawn to expand the concept to other trains, officials said.

"This has been done on a trial basis and will be expanded once we get positive feedback from passengers. Once we try it out more and record the feedbacks, we will put the necessary details on CRIS (Centre for Railway Information Systems) where it can be booked on request," an official of the Northern Railway said.

"The (booking) system will be like the one we currently use to offer senior citizens lower berths. So, once, a passenger says yes to travelling with a child, we will offer the berth to them. However, it is now at a nascent stage," the official said.

Currently, there is no mechanism to book the lower berth for women who are travelling with infants.