The Indian Railways is all geared up to introduce a couple of high-speed trains. The two trains – Train 18 and Train 20 – would replace Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express.
These trains, which would be the fastest in India, are being developed at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai. According to reports, Indian Railways is planning to roll out two ‘Train 18’ by August this year.
Sudhanshu Mani, GM of ICF, said that while ‘Train 20’ will take over Rajdhani trains in a phase-wise manner, ‘Train 18’ would replace Shatabdi trains. Also, ‘Train 20’ is likely to be rolled out on tracks by 2020.
He also added that during the trial runs the two trains clocked 176 km/hr speed. However, when commercial operations start, the world-class trains will run at a maximum speed of 170 km/hr. The current fastest train in the country, Gatiman Express, has a maximum speed of 160 km/hr.
Equipped with world-class features such as LED TV screens, GPS, diffuse lighting system, these set of trains will also be propelled by 6 motor coaches which would help in faster acceleration.
Apart from several safety features, the trains will have ‘Automatic Plug-Type’ doors which will open and close automatically at stations. Also, the toilets of these coaches will be fitted with zero discharge vacuum based bio-toilets.
