Railways ask ICF to make two trains of 250 km per hour

07 Jun 2024 CW Team

First, the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai, the Ministry of Railways' production unit, has been ordered to build two trains with a top speed of 250 km/h (kmph).The Railway Board requested that the ICF create these two trains as part of its 2024?2025 manufacturing schedule in a letter dated June 4. With a maximum speed of 250 kmph and a running speed of 220 kmph, the trains would be constructed with a steel body. Standard gauges will be used for construction. The trains will use the Vande Bharat platform, according to authorities, as part of the transporter's strategy to boost the pace of upcoming Vande Bharat trains. The railways said these would be eight-coach trains. It has been building a standard gauge train test track in Rajasthan for the last year, mainly to evaluate its capabilities for creating high-speed trains and exporting Vande Bharat trains, which need to be converted from broad gauge to standard gauge, the most widely used gauge in the world. There are no fast-moving trains in India. According to experts, the project is anticipated to pose a significant challenge. Sudhanshu Mani, former general manager of the ICF who led the development of the initial Vande Bharat trains, remarked that achieving a standard gauge train with a speed of 250 kmph by March 2025, considering the top speed of Vande Bharat trains is 180 kmph, is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. He suggested that the ICF could be motivated with sufficient autonomy and, under committed leadership, undertake this development over a period of three to four years. He emphasised that, if successful, it would mark a significant milestone. However, he criticised the issuance of letters proposing unrealistic targets, deeming it counterproductive. Ashwini Vaishnaw, the caretaker minister for railways, stated to Business Standard that the government's objective has been to indigenize high-speed rail technology. He mentioned that high-speed trains on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridors are being constructed using Japanese technology from Shinkansen, or bullet trains, and the government has been learning from these experiences to develop similar trains in India.

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