The Hindu Business Line : Rlys plans to use more stainless steel

Stainless steel coaches have higher passenger carrying capacity per coach and result in a lower unit cost of transportation than corten steel shells. They also rank high on passenger comfort.

Mamuni Das

With the Indian Railways proposing to increase the construction of LHB-stainless steel coaches and adopt stainless steel shells for ICF design bogies, the demand for stainless steel sheets is all set to see a massive spurt.

LHB coaches are used primarily in select Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains, apart from some air-conditioned coaches in mail and express trains.

These passenger coaches — which are relatively longer, but lighter and maintenance-friendly (they need less corrosion repairs) — improve passenger comfort, safety and operation.

The Railways started manufacturing stainless steel LHB coaches at Kapurthala-based Rail Coach Factory after a transfer of technology agreement with Alstom-LHB, Germany. The Railways had imported 24 coaches from Alstom-LHB before the agreement was signed.

Total switchover

The Railways has proposed a complete switch-over to LHB stainless steel coach production mode at the Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala. It has also suggested increasing the manufacturing capacity at Kapurthala to 1500 from the present level of 1400 coaches per annum at a cost of Rs 37 crore.

This has been proposed in the Railway Ministry’s supplementary demand for grants tabled in Parliament recently.

At present, the production units of Railways annually manufacture about 100 LHB coaches as part of a total capacity of about 2,200 coaches. In its total fleet of about 35,000 coaches, the Railways has about 400 LHB coaches.

LHB design bogies use stainless steel shells, whereas ICF design bogies use carbon and corten steel shells. Now, stainless steel shells are longer in size and have corrosion resistance properties.

Additionally, stainless steel coaches have about 10-12 per cent higher passenger carrying capacity per coach and give a lower unit cost of transportation as compared to corten steel shells.

MORE COMFORT

They also rank high on passenger comfort due to various features that include better design and lower noise levels.

In its supplementary demands for grants, Railways has also proposed to adopt stainless steels shell for ICF bogies.

“It is proposed to adopt stainless steel shell for the ICF bogies… It is therefore proposed to take up this work at an estimated cost of Rs 1145.68 crore,” the Railways has stated in its demand document.

Manufacturing each LHB coach costs an average of Rs 2 crore against Rs 83 lakh for a coach made of corten steel (which is used for the usual coaches in use). However, the Railways is considering a move to manufacture coaches with stainless steel body shells (of LHB design) without the “frills” to bring down the cost by about 35-40 per cent.

In terms of speed as well, LHB coaches can run at a higher speed — of up to 160 km per hour (kmph) whereas the other coaches can run at a maximum speed of 130 kmph. LHB stainless steel coaches have a life of “at least 35 years” while corten steel coaches have a life of 25 years after which they need to be scrapped.

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