The showcase rail coach factory (RCF) in Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s parliamentary constituency in Rae Bareli may wait for another three years to become fully functional. The delay in fully operationalising the RCF Rae Bareli is stated to be due to the delay in import of machineries to build Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches.
The RCF Rae Bareli is expected to manufacture 1,000 LHB coaches a year for the Railways once it is fully operationalised. However, the RCF Rae Bareli is carrying out some work in the form of furnishings of the coaches provided to it by the RCF Kapurthala, said a senior official.
The RCF Rae Bareli has also to address the demand to give mandatory employment to local people against land acquisition for the plant, added the official.
“The machineries to build the LHB coaches are imported. Therefore, there is delay in commencing the coach building Activities at Rae Bareli. It will take about three years for the Rae Bareli plant to become fully operational,” said the official.
However, the fully operational RCF Rae Bareli will give much fillip to the Railways to switch over to the LHB coaches on trains, which are more safe than the conventional coaches.
“Most of the casualties in train accidents take place due to coaches ramming into each other. But in the case of the LHB coaches even in the event of accident the coaches do not ram into each other or derail. Therefore, the Railways will eventually have LHB coaches,” said the official.
However, the conventional ICF coaches with a lifespan of 25 years are still being built due to capacity constraint for LHB coaches. “It will take a while before we make a complete switchover to the LHB coaches, which are built of stainless steel and is lighter in weight. The Railways had bought the technology from a German company for the LHB coaches and the plan is to make only such kind of coaches after 2016,” said the official.