The Railway Board has finally cleared the decks for operating Chennai-Madurai-Chennai Pandian and Chennai-Tirunelveli-Chennai Nellai Superfast express trains on Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches, railway sources said on Friday.
The LHB coaches, designed on German technology, have inbuilt safety and comfort features that are comparable to world class standards. After the high-level safety review committee, led by Anil Kakodkar, recommended stoppage production of conventional coaches, the railways took a policy decision for a complete migration to LHB coaches, the sources said.
“There were reports of rattling noise or jerks in some old coaches run in Pandian and Nellai express trains. We even had complains of AC failure in upper class coaches on a few occasions. It has been decided to introduce LHB rakes in these trains soon. These coaches are safer and proven to have a smooth ride on long formation rakes running at high speed,” a senior railway official said.
The cost of manufacturing each LHB coach that is designed to attain a speed of up to 160 kmph is said to be Rs. 2.5 crore. After The Hindu reported early this year on how several new LHB coaches rolled out by Integral Coach Factory (ICF) here were gathering dust with no takers, the Southern Railway took steps to put them on tracks.
A month later, the old design coaches in Chennai-Mangalore-Chennai Express were replaced by LHB rakes.
Another railway official said that the operation of Chennai-Coimbatore-Chennai Cheran Express could be termed “unsafe” as the rakes were being run over and above 3,500 km at one go. “Going by safety norms, a rake turned out of pit-line examination cannot be run beyond 3,500 km. In this case, the rake is operated as Navajeevan Express from Ahmedabad to Chennai and then to Coimbatore as Cheran Express without much of cleaning or maintenance. This is in violation of safety guidelines…,” he said.
In a related development, railway sources said the ICF would soon manufacture Deen Dayal unreserved coaches for long distance trains announced by Railway Minister Sunil Prabu in the Budget.
These coaches would have potable water and higher number of mobile charging points.
