Indian Railways : MoS Railways inspects production of Vande Bharat Express coaches at ICF production facilities

Darshana Jardosh, Minister of State for Railways visited ICF and flagged off the 15th rake of Mainline coaches for export to Sri Lanka Railways. Minister of State for Railways interacted with the officers and staff of ICF and also the stake holders in the production of Vande Bharat Express Coaches.

Earlier, at ICF’s Furnishing Division, Jardosh inspected the production of coaches at ICF production facilities, including the prestigious Vande Bharat Express coaches at various stages of production. Jardosh appreciated the efforts of ICF in turning out modern and safe coaches for travel of Indian Railway passengers.

During her interaction with media, she said “To make India self-reliant, under the directions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji, in this 75th Year of India’s independence which is celebrated as Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, we have resolved to turn out 400 Vande Bharat Express rakes. All steps are being taken towards it. At present, two trains are running successfully between New Delhi-Varanasi and New Delhi-Katra. I wanted to inspect how the make-in-India coaches are being made at ICF and I am very proud to see the activities here. In addition to make India self-reliant, we want to export our technology to other countries as well. As a part of it, now coaches are being exported to Sri Lanka”.

The total order from Sri Lanka Railways is for 160 mainline coaches and 140 coaches have already been exported and the balance is being planned to be completed by this production year (2021-22). The Sri Lankan Mainline Coaches have modern and advanced features such as bogies with Air-Spring suspension for better ride comfort, Stainless steel shell body, Brake vans consist of Guard compartment with Guard control panel, pressure gauges, speedometer, hand brake wheel, emergency brake valve, seats for third class are of cushioned bench type facing each other. Individual reclining Bucket type cushioned seats for Second class; Rotatable seats with individual audio control for infotainment in AC chair cars; GPS based passenger information system and LCD display indicates speed, location and announcement. In each of the air-conditioned 1st class chair cars, the power required for running the AC, a 42 KVA diesel generating set has been provided.