JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #117 - November/December 2017 - 44

LAND TRANSPORTATION
lndia

Modernization of lndian rolling stock
A elcome signal for composites
ndian ailwa s is an organi ation that touches the hearts and e istence of all
ndians even ahatma andhi who decided to underta e a vo age of discover
of ndia before launching himself into the national freedom movement nd he
conducted this harat arshan tour of ndia on trains
uresh rabhu inister
of ailwa s of ndia

M

AHSR (Mumbai-Ahmedabad High
Speed Rail), a flagship project connecting two Indian cities by bullet
train, witnessed the laying of its foundation
stone on 14 September 2017. This project reinforces the Indian dreams of modernizing
the country's rail network.
India is a vast land with huge geographic
diversities, where railways are not just an
economic development indicator, but also
the tracks connecting diverse social lives.
The mainline railway is operated by Indian
Railway (IR), a state-owned organization of
the Ministry of Railways. However, urban
rail transit systems across the country are
operated independently.
Indian Railways is the third largest rail
network in the world with, on an average,
30 million passengers commuting daily
through 12,617 trains. Indian Railways noted 1.1 billion passenger-km travel in 2015,
which is approximately 17 times that of
Great Britain. As regards freight transport,
India ranks fourth globally. In the financial
year 2016-17, Indian Railway ferried 1,186
million tons of freight, generating 67% of its
total revenues. In terms of rolling stock, the
company owns 200,000 (freight) wagons,
50,000 coaches and 8,000 locomotives.
Thus, it has vast operations with an attractive market potential.
Mainline railways
The mainline railways in India are yet to see
their modernization phase. Most of the trains

44

running on the mainline rail network are still
old design, metallic rolling stock.
The average speed of super-fast trains is 70-80
km/h while that of express trains is 36 km/h
(excluding halts). Some branded trains like the
Gatimaan Express, the Rajdhani Express, the
Duronto and the Shatabdi run at an average
speed between 100 to 110 km/h. Indian
Railway is willing to allow these semi-highspeed trains on its existing tracks.
Why composites?
One of the steps to improve the average speed
of trains is to lower the weight of rolling stock.
Currently, the average weight of Indian coaches is 16.8 tons every 10 m (air-conditioned
(AC) chair car). This is double in comparison
to most railway coaches. For instance, a
10-m Talgo chair car coach weighs 9.3 tons.
Lowering the weight of coaches not only
allows higher travel speeds, but it also reduces
per passenger fuel costs. Composites is the
most logical solution to reduce the weight.
Increasing speed also generates a higher drag
force, so that an aerodynamic shape of the
front nose is helpful to increase speed. With
composites, it is much easier to build products with aerodynamic shapes.
The use of composites in Indian Railways'
current fleet is very limited. Many cars are
fitted with composite side panels, window
panels and floors. Some locomotives have a
composite driver desk and shunting desk.
Some private players also tried to highlight
the advantages of composites. For instance,
Kemrock Industries and Exports Ltd.(recently taken over by the Reliance Group) built

jec composites magazine / N°117 November - December 2017

and displayed a composite rail coach.
The Research Designs & Standards
Organization (RDSO), an organization
under the Indian Ministry of Railway, issued
a notification for the widespread adoption of
composite sleepers to replace ageing sleepers.
This will be a giant task considering India's
119,640 km-long rail network. Companies
are planning to use recycled materials like
HDPE, crammer rubber, glass and others for
the production of composite sleepers.
Advanced Composites Mission
A fast-paced indigenous development and
induction of composites is urgently required
for the Indian railways. To usher in the necessary culture and technology, the Department
of Science & Technology (DST) created the
Advanced Composites Mission. According
to an autonomous organization under DST,

Composites coach for demonstration, built by
Kemrock Industries and Exports Ltd.
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #117 - November/December 2017
