Title - Steel First AC back

Passengers of Jamshedpur accorded more than a warm welcome to a "cool" AC First coach of the ever popular Steel Express that chugged out of Tatanagar station on Wednesday morning. The First AC coach, which had once been introduced in September last year before being withdrawn due to maintenance hiccups six months later, witnessed cent per cent occupancy on its first day with all 16 general and emergency quota seats booked. The only two seats vacant in the bogie when the train pulled out of Tatanagar were those allotted to Kharagpur quota. "The booking from Jamshedpur was full on Wednesday. In fact, we had to turn down the requests of a number of passengers looking to travel in the First AC coupes," said Rajeshwar Choudhary, station manager of Tatanagar. The passengers also sounded upbeat about reintroduction of the luxury coach, which made the four-hour odd journey to Howrah more comfortable and relaxed. "I was supposed to take the Howrah-Barbil Janshatabdi Express. But then I came to know that the First AC coach in Steel Express had come back and changed my ticket," said B. Paul, a local businessman. Vice-president of Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry Suresh Sonthalia, who had relentlessly pursued the cause of reintroduction of the First AC option with the railway headquarters at Garden Reach, was one of the 16 passengers who took the train on Wednesday. "I had also travelled on the coach when it was first introduced in September last year. The interior of the bogie has been changed. It looks better now. I am sure the First AC coach will draw good response from the business community," Sonthalia said. A South Eastern Railway spokesperson said the facility was reintroduced to cater to the rich and business class passengers. "The First AC coach seats are as comfortable as the executive chair car of Shatabdi Express," he said.