Soon Rajdhani Like Experience For All: Indian Railways To Replace ICF Coaches With LHB Ones For Long Distance Trains

Indian Railways is planning to modernise its trains by introducing Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches in place of the ageing Integral Coach Factory (ICF) ones, reports Financial Express.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had recently announced in Rajya Sabha that his ministry plans to replace conventional coaches with their LHB counterparts for long distance trains.

Goyal further assured the upper house that the Modi government would ensure implementation of more trains for better rail connectivity.

LHB, compared with ICF coaches, have various features like being lightweight, better carrying capacity, increased codal life, high-speed potential and enhanced safety.

The minister, while responding to a supplementary query in the question hour, said that the decision to introduce LHB coaches in long distance travelling trains was made during a review meeting in Guwahati.

The ICF-designed coach’s production has been stopped, and all coaches currently manufactured are of LHB type. Until the trains receive the latest LHB coaches, Indian Railways is carrying out Project Utkrisht, where all the ICF-designed trains are being upgraded.

Addressing the issue of unmanned railway crossings, Goyal said that the ministry had eliminated most of the unmanned crossings, which resulted in a huge decrease in railway accidents. In the last nine months, there have been only three railway accidents compared to 50 such incidents a year ago.

The government has compensated families of deceased whenever the national transporter had a responsibility to repay, said Goyal while adding that no compensation was paid to trespassers.