Railways to deploy 15 EMUs on Shatabdi, Rajdhani routes

Railways will deploy 15 EMU train sets with an average speed of 160 KMPH and with 20-25 per cent energy efficiency on Shatabdi and Rajdhani routes.

The tender process to procure the train sets will end by mid November. The move is part of Railways’ plans to increase train speeds without additional spending on signals and other infrastructure.

Operated without locomotive, the trains would work on both electricity and diesel. There will be a 16-coach set with just chair car and executive classes and a 20-coach train with all classes from ACs to second class.

There are nearly 25 participants in the bidding process of the Rs 2,500 crore project, including Bombardier, Siemens, Alstom, Hundai, Toshiba, BHEL, BMEL and Talgo.

“The procurement is part of the ‘Make In India’ project,” a high Railways official said. “We will have an agreement with the successful company to bring two initial train sets from outside and manufacture the rest in India. They would also set up maintenance centres here,” the official added.

“We will acquire the maintenance technology,” the official further added. “The supplier would maintain the trains for seven years and the Railways would take over from there since the age of these train sets is 35 years.”