Indian Railways is on the verge of manufacturing its first aluminium shell coaches with an estimated speed range of 250 kmph. The Modern Coach Factory (MCF) Raebareli is awaiting approval from the Railway Ministry on a proposal to make 500 aluminium coaches. Despite the worldwide use of aluminium for high speed train coached, India still manufactures stainless steel LHB coaches.
“Given that production of aluminium coaches will be a first for Indian Railways, a global tender will be floated for Transfer of Technology (ToT),” Rajesh Agrawal, Member Rolling Stock at Railway Board said.
As said by Mr. Agrawal, the global tender is likely to be awarded in FY 2019-20 and the first aluminium shell train set is expected to roll out from MCF Raebareli by 2020-21. He added that the use of aluminium coaches is a new technology for Indian railways, which is expected to save costs in the long run.
“Stainless steel corrodes, while aluminium does not. So the maintenance requirements and costs are much lesser. The ICF-design coaches have to be condemned within 25 years and the LHBs may not last beyond 30-35 years. With aluminium, we are planning to go for a 40-year life, maybe even beyond,” he added.
Indian railways will soon get its first engineless Train 18 train set, which is a way forward for the department. According to Mr Agarwal, Indian Railways should move to train sets because distributed power systems are much lighter.
“These aluminium coaches that we are hoping to make will also be joined to form a train set. On a per coach basis, several tonnes are saved, the train is much lighter and evenly powered, hence ensuring smoother rides,” he told Financial Express Online.
While there is an incremental cost in manufacturing the aluminium coach, the maintenance cost will be far less in the lifecycle. Agrawal is hopeful that European and Japanese giants should come forward to manufacture these coaches once the global tender is floated. Indian Railways is also hopeful of exporting these modern aluminium coaches, considering the higher speed limits of 250 kmph.
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