Train 18: How ICF made world-class engine-less train set in just 18 months. Man who led the project explain

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Train 18: How ICF made world-class engine-less train set in just 18 months. Man who led the project explain

October 30, 2018, 8:48 AM

Train 18, Indian Railways’ record-creating first self-propelled train set for long-distance inter-city travel, will be unveiled on October 29. 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 an interview with Financial Express Online’s Smriti Jain, Sudhanshu Mani talks about the challenges ICF faced while making the world-class ‘Make in India’ Train 18 and how his team overcame them:

Train 18 has been made in a record time. What are the challenges that ICF had to face?

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 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.

How is Train 18 radically different from other trains manufactured on the LHB platform?

The features which make the train sets different from other coaches are so many. First and foremost, it has a much faster acceleration and deceleration rate and it would therefore cut down the travel time substantially. With its quick turnaround advantage, it would be liked immensely by our operating wing.

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