In a major policy decision, the Indian Railways has decided to introduce Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches in all mail and express trains in phases in the country. LHB coaches are based on German technology ensuring greater safety and travelling comfort to passengers. Currently, LHB coaches are being used in Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express and Duronto trains.
Railway Board Member (Mechanical) Hemant Kumar who was here on an official visit said that Raiwlays has already decided to replace all old coaches of mail and express trains by LHB coaches by the end of 2019-2020. Railways plans to manufacture more LHB coaches in the current fiscal year. According to him, while it costs about Rs 1.5 crore to manufacture a conventional coach,...
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the cost of each LHB coach is about Rs 2.5 crore.
Production
Annual production of LHB coaches is around 400 per year for year 2013-2014.
During 2010-11, RCF Kapurthala produced 300 coaches. During 2012-13, the total number of coaches that were produced was 1680, while in 2013-14, RCF was able to increase the production to 1701 coaches.
During 2013-14, Integral Coach Factory produced 25 LHB coaches. It plans to increase its manufacturing capacity of LHB coaches. It has set a target to manufacture 300 LHB coaches in 2014-15 and reach a capacity of 1000 LHB coaches by 2016-17.
The planned capacity of Rail Coach Factory, Raebareli is 1000 LHB coaches per year. The plant is yet to become fully operational.
A rail coach factory has been sanctioned at Palakkad, Kerala in public private partnership mode for production of LHB coaches. Once completed, this factory would produce 400 coaches annually.
Rail coach factory is sanctioned by government and is to be set up at Kolar, Karnataka in February 2014. The planned capacity of this plant is 500 LHB coaches per year for phase-1 and additional capacity of 500 coaches per year in phase-2.