by: NavJeevan

Railway Minister lauds ICF for manufacturing world-class Vande Bharat trains

NE BUSINESS BUREAU
CHENNAI, AUG 12

Union Minister of Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, on Friday said the newly-designed Vande Bharat trains being produced at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai are world-class and contain several innovative features.

Speaking after inspecting the new prototype Vande Bharat express train rolled out at ICF and also witnessing the commissioning activities at the furnishing divisions of ICF, he said last year Prime Minister Narendra Modi set a target to his ministry to manufacture 75 trains on the 75th anniversary of India’s independence.

  • Union minister said the Vande Bharat train will be tested at a speed of 180 kmph and will traverse 50,000 km and the testing includes dynamic, static, load test and oscillation trials.
  • As many as 475 such trains will be made in four years to cover all the states
  • Ashwini Vaishnaw announced a cash award of Rs.10 lakhs to the ICF staff in appreciation of their skills and dedication.

Accordingly, 75 Vande Bharat express trains would be manufactured and deployed throughout the country before August 15 next year.

“They will cover the entire country. They will join the nation. I am very happy that Vande Bharat train has been manufactured by ICF within a short time and in good quality,” the minister told reporters here.

“This is a world-class train. And some really innovative things have been incorporated in this train like automatic opening of doors, comfortable space in the driver’s cabin for the loco pilots to operate,” he said.

He also went for a short inspection on board the Vande Bharat Express driver’s cab along with ICF officials.

“From the users’ point of view, this train has reclining chairs for passengers besides differently abled-friendly toilets,” Vaishnaw added.

On the testing process, the Union minister said the Vande Bharat train will be tested at a speed of 180 kmph and will traverse 50,000 km and the testing includes dynamic, static, load test and oscillation trials which will be carried out on different kind of situations.

After the trials, ICF will manufacture more such trains. As many as 475 such trains will be made in four years to cover all the states, he said after going around inspecting the interiors of the newly rolled out Vande Bharat coach.

The Union minister, who also holds the Communications and IT portfolio, participated in a tricolour rally taken out by the students of ICF Silver Jubilee School here. He went around the ICF North Colony along with the children of the school and the residents of the ICF North Colony, carrying the National Flag to create awareness of the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ program.

At the ICF post office, Vaishnaw inaugurated the sale of the national flag under the Centre’s ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign. He made payment through UPI for the national tricolour and distributed the flags on the occasion.

“We all remember Mahakavi Subramania Bharati for his great sacrifice and for making us all remember our rich heritage. He made us recognise the importance of our national flag,” the Union minister said at the Bharathiar Memorial, Triplicane, here, after garlanding his statue.

Felicitated descendant of Bharathiyar

The Minister felicitated  Niranjan Bharati, fifth-generation descendant of Bharathiyar, Karuppaiah, 99 year-old freedom fighter, Major Natarajan, son of Late Lt. Parthiban, Kalvikkarasi Shankar, spouse of Usha Shankar, DSP, CRPF, Ambika Anandan, spouse of Late A Anandan, Recipient of Hon’ble President’s Police Medal for Gallantry (Second-in-command), Jayabharati, Mother of Late Rajasekaran, Sepoy Army, Indian Peace Keeping Force to Srilanka.

The ICF has the capacity to manufacture six to seven Vande Bharat rakes (trains) every month and attempts are on to scale this number to 10.

Minister says ‘Romba Romba Nandri’

He said that as remarked by Hon’ble Prime Minister, Tamil is the oldest language in the world and he said he is very proud of the Tamil culture and Tamil people for their hospitality. He thanked the gathering by saying “Romba Romba Nandri” meaning “Thanks so much”.

Ashwini Vaishnaw announced a cash award of Rs.10 lakhs to the ICF staff in appreciation of their skills and dedication.

He was accompanied by AK Agarwal, GM, ICF, BG Mallya, GM, Southern Railway, S Srinivas, Principal Chief Mechanical  Engineer, ICF, DP Dash, Principal Chief Electrical Engineer, ICF and other officers of ICF.

The Indian Railways has joined hands with IIT Madras to indigenously develop Hyperloop technology based transportation system which runs faster than bullet trains, and has considerably low operating cost. It will extend financial support of Rs. 8.34 crore to IIT Madras for this project.

Salient features of Vande Bharat rakes

  • Change of formation with individual units with Non-Driving Trailer Coach in the middle like an EMU for better acceleration/deceleration.
  • Time to reach 160 Kmph is 140 seconds compared to 145 seconds earlier.
  • Emergency lighting – 4 nos. in each coach for powering the lights in case all electricity connection fail in comparison with NIL earlier
  • 4 platform side cameras including rear view cameras outside the coach instead of 2 earlier
  • Better heat ventilation and air-conditioning control by using higher efficiency compressor with UV lamp for germ free supply of air. This was not there in the earlier version.
  • The present coaches have Level-II safety integration certification for better train control management
  • Separate ventilation duct on the side wall as against part of traction motor earlier
  • 2 Nos. signal exchange lights on the coaches for exchange of signal with the way side stations
  • Fire detection system based on Aerosol fire suppression system in all coaches in place of just smoke detection system in the earlier coaches. Better fire safety.
  • Bigger Passenger Information and Infotainment System of 32” in every coach instead of 24” earlier
  • Better Coach Control Management System for monitoring Air-Conditioning, communication and feed back to control centre/maintenance staff through GSM/GPRS
  • Better riding comfort for passenger at 3.5 (riding index)
  • 4 Nos. emergency windows added in every coach
  • Residual acceleration at 0.1 m/second at 160 Kmph as against 0.05 m/sec
  • Better flood proofing for under-slung electrical equipments that will withstand floods up to a height of 650 mm as against 400 mm earlier
  • Class 3 and 4 surge arrestors for electrical safety as against Class 2 and 3 surge arrestors earlier
  • Driver-Guard communication with voice recording facility.
  • Kavach (Train Collision Avoidance System) has been introduced
  • Seats’ handles are provided with Seat Nos. in Braille letters to assist the visually challenged passengers