Urban Transport Infrastructure November 2018 Urban Transport Infra November 2018 | Page 43

Interview
Train-18 has a travel experience
comparable to aircraft: GM, ICF
On 29 October 2018, Mr. Ashwani Lohani, Chairman,
Railway Board flagged off the first engine less prototype
train (Train 18) for trial run.
Train 18 is the Indian
Railways’ record-creating first self-propelled train set for
long-distance inter-city travel. Manufactured at a cost of
Rs 100 crore, the 16-coach AC train set will replace
India’s fastest Shatabdi Express train. A project of this
magnitude has not been completed in a such a record
time anywhere in the world, says Integral Coach Factory
(ICF) Chennai GM Sudhanshu Mani. In a media
interview, Sudhanshu Mani talks about the challenges
ICF faced while making the world-class ‘Make in India’
Train 18 and how his team overcame them:
Mr. Sudhanshu Mani, General Manager, ICF, Chennai
Train 18 has been made in a record
time. What are the challenges that
ICF had to face?
Mr. Sudhanshu Mani: It’s actually
just 18 months as the go ahead was
received by us from the Railway
Board only in April 17. The
challenges
involved
intelligent
processing in all fields like interaction
with consultants conceptual design,
detailed design, development and
prototype tests of sub-assemblies and
subsequent supply chain, assembly
and manufacture of the shells
followed by furnishing and intricate
testing and commissioning. Such a
project has never been attempted by
Indian Railways, let alone ICF. Our
mode has been to acquire technology
for rolling stock and assimilate it
gradually with the help of the
partner. This was a whole new ball
game, we were the developer of the
technology and had to be in the lead
all the time, with our own technical
teams as well the vendors who were
developing the sub-assemblies.
Coming
to
specifics,
it’s
noteworthy that Indian Railways did
not have ready technology for 160
km/hr
fit
motorized
bogies.
Developing such bogies with fully
suspended traction motors and under-
slung propulsion system was a very
tough task. Our exteriors have often
been singled out for criticism and we
had to innovate, within our
limitations, to present an attractive
exterior. Then there was the task of
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coordination with various third party
equipment to talk to each other
digitally and our engineers had to
work hard to make that possible,
bridging soft and hard differences in
philosophy
of
design
and
performance.
Suffice it to say that it has been a
remarkable journey and I salute the
team ICF and the associated industry
partners for making this possible.
There was tension, there was
bitterness, there were temporary
disappointments all the way and at
the end of the day, we have been able
to deliver. I am not aware if a project
of this magnitude has been
completed,
from
concept
to
prototype, anywhere in the world in
such a short time.
Let me add that I have worked on
nearly all major rolling stock design
and development programmes of
Indian Railways, including major
locomotive projects, but I can say
without any doubt that this would
count as the biggest challenge and the
greatest success of our indigenous
programme with complete ownership
of technology with ICF.
it would therefore cut down the travel
time substantially. With its quick
turnaround advantage, it would be
liked immensely by our operating
wing.
Let me also tell you about the
features which passengers would
appreciate as something new-
1. modern air-conditioned coaches
interconnected with fully sealed
gangways, which block noise and
dust
2. Centrally operated automatic
plug doors with sliding steps.
The sliding steps close the gap
between coaches and station
platform.
3. Touch free automatic doors
inside
the
passenger
compartment
4. Two coaches – one on either end
– are provided with disabled-
friendly passenger bays and
disabled-friendly toilets
5. Onboard uninterrupted wi-fi and
enabled infotainment
6. GPS-enabled
passenger
information – of train speed,
location,
time
to
reach
destination etc.
7. Toilets with touch-free fittings
8. Multilevel lighting – direct and
indirect, similar to aircraft
lighting
9. Comfortable seating, window
blinds and luggage racks etc.
How is Train 18 radically different
from other trains manufactured on the
LHB platform?
Mr. Mani: The features which make
the train sets different from other
coaches are so many. First and
All the equipment of the train are
foremost, it has a much faster
acceleration and deceleration rate and mounted underneath the floor so the
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Urban Transport Infrastructure | November 2018