Indian Railways is working towards a major technological change to make future rail travel faster, lighter and modern. The Railway Ministry has given this in-principle approval under the proposed Vande Bharat 3.0 Mission.
Business News: Indian Railways is going to take a big step towards making the country’s rail network modern and fast. Plans are now underway to develop the new generation Vande Bharat 3.0 trains with a completely indigenous aluminum body. This change is being considered important towards making India’s rail technology more competitive at the global level.
With this decision of the Railway Ministry, the future Vande Bharat sleeper and high-speed trains will be completely based on ‘Make in India’ aluminum structure, which will reduce the dependence on foreign technology to a great extent.
Train structure will be made of 100% indigenous aluminum
Under the new Vande Bharat 3.0 project, the body and many major components of the trains will now be made from indigenous aluminum developed in India. This step will strengthen the manufacturing capacity of Indian Railways and is considered a major change towards eliminating dependence on imports. With this change, India will join the list of select countries that use advanced aluminum technology for high-speed trains.
The currently running Vande Bharat trains are based on stainless steel body. But with the advent of new aluminum technology, the weight of trains will be reduced by 30% to 40%. There will be many improvements in the performance of the train due to weight loss:
- Fast Acceleration
- low energy consumption
- better speed capability
- Operational speed capability up to 160–180 km/h
This is expected to lead to huge savings in energy costs for Indian Railways.
10–15% reduction in operational costs possible
According to railway officials, till now many special grades of aluminum had to be imported from abroad, which increased the production cost. But now under the “Make in India” model, designing, welding and assembly work will be done in India only. It is estimated that the cost per train set can be reduced by 10% to 15%.
The indirect benefit of this savings may be in the form of better and possibly more affordable services to passengers in the future. The new aluminum body technology will prove to be very useful especially for the coastal areas of India. In areas like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Odisha, the problem of rusting of steel trains due to salt air is common. Aluminum does not rust, therefore:
- Life of train can increase by 35–40 years
- Maintenance costs will be less
- The external quality of trains will remain for a long time
- Big upgrade in security: ‘Kavach 4.0’ system
Special attention has also been paid to safety in the new Vande Bharat 3.0 trains. India’s advanced train security system Kavach 4.0 will be integrated in these. Railways has prepared a clear roadmap for this project. A target has been set to complete prototype testing based on aluminum technology by August 2027.
Comments are closed.