COVERED TRAIN 18 LAUNCH

Train 18, India’s first engineless train was unveiled on October 29, 2018, at Integral Coach Factory here in Chennai. I got to know about the inauguration by accident and without giving any second thought, I was too excited to go. After spending 1 hour trying to book cabs from my hostel to ICF, I ended upon deciding to drive myself and go. I started around 3 pm and reached the Chennai Rail Museum at 4 pm. The function was scheduled to start around 4:30 pm. I had half an hour with me, so I decided to explore the museum. I went towards the Children’s Park and the Sculpture Park. I was amazed to see the serene beauty over there. It came with a complete package of cleanliness, entertainment, and information. The sculpture park hosts its specialty in forms created with scrap from ICF scrapyard. Before the inauguration, a promo video of Train 18 was screened in the CRM Movie Theatre. After the promo video, we went to ICF, where Train 18 was scheduled to unveil. With all the zeal and zest, Train 18 was unveiled royally. Following this, all the media personnel and others were allowed to go inside the train. This was the best part. Train 18 is India’s first engineless train built in Rs100 crore in mere 18 months. The 16 coach train is a self-propelled EMU, with automatic plug doors, sliding footsteps, comfortable seating, strong fire detection systems, 360 degrees rotating seats in the executive chair car, touch-sensitive personalised reading lights, foldable snack table, diffused aircraft like LED lighting, mobile charging points with every seat, braille integrated, talkback system for emergency communication, and smart braking system. It is also GPS and WIFI enabled along with being under constant CCTV coverage. It is also user-friendly for differently-abled with special washrooms for them. The doors of the train more or less work similar to metro trains, hence nobody now has the risk of falling off the train. It starts only when all the doors have been closed. The coaches are connected through couplings, thereby making sure that cars don’t climb each other in case of any unfortunate happening. All the components of the train are indigenous. It could run at a speed of 160kmph, as compared to Shatabdi which runs at 130kmph, thus cutting down the travel time by 15%. Sudhanshu Mani, General Manager of ICF, and a very humble person spoke to us. He said, “According to him, there can’t be a better example of Make in India than this”. I asked him how the safety of the passengers has been taken care of amid all the accidents which Indian Railways are facing and what does he expect from the passengers keeping in mind Tejas Express wasn’t welcomed in a good way?