NEW DELHI (Metro Rail News): Titagarh Rail Systems has planned to manufacture aluminium train coaches domestically in India. The company received its first metro contract in 2019 for the Pune Metro project, introducing India’s first aluminium-bodied train coaches. It has successfully supplied aluminium coaches for the Pune Metro project and attained another order to manufacture twelve more aluminium train sets.
Earlier, the company was dependent on Firema, an Italy-based rolling stock manufacturer, for the supply of flat packs and sub assemblies, for the production of aluminium-bodied trains. However, in the previous year, they imported the required machinery to build these flat packs. The firm now intends to produce the flat packs and sub assemblies entirely from the most primary manufacturing stage of production in India. They further said that they will be self-reliant to make these train sets domestically by the FY 2027, and the beginning of the FY 2028.
With this advancement, the company is looking forward to the opportunities of manufacturing high-speed train projects. Aluminium reduces the train’s weight, allowing faster acceleration and less wear on the tracks. Across the world, aluminium coaches are used in manufacturing high speed trains.
Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Railways Minister of India, has noted the future endeavours involving aluminium body coaches in 2022, replying to a question at Lok Sabha. He pointed out that Indian Railway plans to procure 400 New Generation Vande Bharat train sets, and the use of aluminium body coaches in these trains will also be considered to the extent possible. Moreover, he said that the rolling stock for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail will be having aluminium bodied coaches.
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