New Delhi:
The ‘Made-In-India’ coaches of India’s first high-speed train to run between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, will undergo testing at India’s first climatic laboratory to be set up at the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai. The testing will happen in 2026, ahead of the train’s debut in the Gujarat section of the high-speed corridor.
Rs 173 crore will be spent on the exercise, documents with CNN-NEWS18 show. The high-speed train coaches would run at the speed of 250-280 km/hr, and require such intense testing in a climatic laboratory. The BEML has been awarded with the contract for design, manufacture, supply, testing and commissioning of the high-speed train to be built at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai. The BEML wants experts to set up a climatic chamber laboratory at ICF before Jan 31, 2026.
State-owned BEML will manufacture and commission two high-speed train sets, marking the first time that such work will be done indigenously. The total contract value is Rs 867 crore, with each coach expected to cost Rs 27.86 crore. India is building its own high-speed rail coaches for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad rail corridor after the Japanese coaches were proving to be too expensive. The BEML could supply the two rail sets by 2026-end, for an inaugural run in the Gujarat section.
As per the website of SBB Unternehmen, a global firm that has such climatic chambers, the train coaches are exposed to numerous weather or journey-related factors in such chambers to have an understanding of how rolling stock and components will behave in cold, snowy, icy or hot conditions. The climatic laboratory to be set up at ICF will carry out evaluation of the energy consumption of the rolling stock, heating, ventilation and the air conditioning equipment.
France also has a climatic laboratory chamber which can provide temperatures from -45°C to 70°C and humidity from 5 per cent to 95 per cent at the Centre d’Essais Ferroviaires in Valenciennes. The chamber is 45 m long, 6 m wide and 6.5 m high. The tests in such chambers also ensure that the designs meet regulations and offer quality assurance. Since the high-speed train in India will run at speeds never experienced before in the country, the climatic laboratory test is a pre-requisite.
