NEW DELHI: To ensure zero casualties in case of derailment or head-on collisions between two trains on same tracks, the railway has started working on a mission mode to replace all the existing rakes of conventional old coaches from the passenger trains with LHB (Link Hofmann Busch) coaches. The LHB coaches are now being manufactured with German technology and design to secure maximum safety and comfort to the passengers.
The conventional coaches in the passenger trains in Indian Railway were used more than 40 years ago to meet the safety standards when the trains had a maximum running speed of 60 to 80 kmph. But now with an increase in speed up to 180kmph, the old conventional coaches are not safe and suitable.
Speaking to this newspaper, a senior railway official said that at a time when the railway has increased the speed of trains after strengthening tracks and gradually making infrastructure advancements, the replacement of old conventional coaches has become an imperative to the railway on war-footing.
As per a conservative figure, the railway is working to replace more than 50000 conventional coaches by 2025-30 with LHB coaches.
The LHB coaches are manufactured at the Chennai-based Integral Coach Factory besides two other places for the national transporters for express trains which run more than 100kmph on many routes connecting the national capital to other metro cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and others.
Speaking exclusively to TNIE, a senior railway official of ministry said: “To begin with, the Indian Railway(IR) had imported a fleet of 24 air-conditioned LHB coaches from Germany for using them in rake of the New Delhi-Lucknow Shatabadi express, after the successful run of this first fleet of LHB coaches, manufacturing started in India”.
At present almost all premier and long-distance express and mail trains, including Tejas Rajdhani, are being operated with the rakes of LHB coaches for the safety of passengers.
The railways is spending Rs 2 crore on the manufacturing of each LHB coach. According to official data, 1,719 passenger trains are running with the rakes of LHB coaches in the country as of date.
“Till July 31 this year since 2001-2, around 30,772 LHB coaches have been manufactured from ICF and other two manufacturing units for replacing the conventional coaches”, official informed TNIE.
The railway has come a long way in manufacturing this from 2001-02 with 27 LHB coaches manufactured to 1,482 LHB coaches manufactured in 2022-23. “The manufacturing of LHB coaches ramped up from 2009-10 when the railway manufactured 169LHB coaches. And it continued increasing from 169 in 2009-10 to 316 in 2010-11”, said railway official. The railway is working to run all the fleet of 400
Vande Bharat express trains with the rakes of LHB coaches in next four to five years.