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Each new coach would cost Rs 2 crore and each rake would comprise 18 passenger coaches covering all classes.

Kolkata , Oct. 7

THE Eastern Railway (ER) will introduce high-speed coaches in the Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express from November.

Built at Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, by using the LHB (Linke-Hofman-Bosch) technology of Germany, the coaches will have many other new features such as higher capacity, better interiors, smoother riding, improved air-conditioning and better heat and noise insulation.

Addressing newspersons on board the train using the new coaches on a trial run between Howrah and Asansol, Mr Shyam Kumar, General Manager of ER, saidthat as many as three Rajdhani rakes now run between Howrah and New Delhi and one of them would be replaced by the rake with new coaches in November, expressing hope that from April next year, all the three rakes would comprise new coaches.

Each new coach would cost Rs 2 crore and each rake would comprise 18 passenger coaches covering all classes, namely, AC First, AC Two Tier and AC Three Tier.

Speed limit: Although the coaches are designed to run at a maximum speed of 160 km per hour, he does not think it would be possible to run them at more than 120/130 kmph because of various factors such as prevalence of unmanned level-crossings, stray cattle jumping on the tracks and additional power requirement. It is not possible to run the train at the maximum speed unless the tracks were fenced on both sides, he said.

There would be more trial runs right up to New Delhi and training for both maintenance and running staff to be deployed on these coaches.

Originally, as many as 40 coaches were imported from Germany and these were mostly used on the New Delhi-Lucknow Shatabdi Express. The coaches built by RCF were first introduced on New Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani Express and subsequently on August-Kranti Express, Mr Kumar added.

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