Indian Railways' production unit Rail Coach Factory(RCF) Kapurthala has manufactured a record 151 Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches in the month of July.
This is the highest number of production of LHB coaches by RCF in a single month since it began manufaturing of LHB coaches in 2002.
According to a statement, " RCF manufactured 107 LHB coaches in June and in the first four months of the current financial, it has produced 310 coaches out of which 307 are modern LHB coaches. RCF manufatured 65 LHB coaches in July 2019
It has been quite a remarkable journey by RCF since it manufactured the first LHB rake of Rajdhani Express in 2003. RCF has manufactured 6500 LHB coaches till now.
Initially LHB coaches were used only in the premium trains of Indian Railways like Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto Express, but now Indian Railways has decided to run allits passengers trains on LHB rakes which are more lighter and safer than the earlier ICF coaches.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal took to Twitter to applaud the work done by the RCF and tweeted,"Production of safer LHB coaches- Yet another ‘Make in India’ Success Story!
Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala sets a record by producing 151 LHB coaches in July’20, thrice the production of July’19.Boosting job creation, this is its highest ever monthly production. "
Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) design coaches are lighter in weight, have higher carrying capacity, higher speed potential, increased codal life and better safety features as compared to Integral Coach Factory (ICF) design coaches.
LHB passenger coaches plying over Indian Railways (IR) have been designed with the necessary safety features considering the operating conditions over Indian Railways.
However, with a view to providing safer and more comfortable journey to passengers, government has decided to replace conventional ICF design coaches of Mail/Express trains with LHB design coaches in a phased manner.
