Travel With Ram's video: ICF Restarts New Vande Bharat Production 44 Rakes New Features

Welcome friends, the good news is ICF will restart production of Vandar Bharat trains and will produce 44 train sets each with 16 coaches in the next 3 year. In this Video I will share the current status of the Vande Bharat / Train-18 coaches or train sets. In the first part a brief chronology of events from April 2017 to December 2019 leading to a tender floated in Dec 2019, a quick look at what the Global tender specified and specifically the improvements over the first TWO running train sets and now in July 2020 details about the bidders, their backgrounds and finally the way forward at ICF Chennai. Video Chapters for your convenience 0:00 - Introduction & Brief of Coverage 1:00 - History behind Train 18 - Good BAD UGLY 3:20 - Major Victory for ICF - Gets Nod for 44 Sets 4:30 - Summary, Conclusion and Way Forward Video Credits - Ashwin RF Chennai, Natarajan Sunny RF, Mayank Karosia ( Indore Junction ), Arun Somanathan In April 2017 Railways sanctioned Rs.2,700 crore to ICF for manufacture of 13 Train-18 sets. ICF rolled out the the first Train 18 for testing in October 2018 in record time of 18 months at an estimated cost of RS.97 crore much lower than imported train sets of similar capability. February 2019 saw the inauguration by prime Minister Narendra Modi and the commercial run between New Delhi and Varanasi. RDSO's revised specification. Some good improvements have been incorporated 1. All coaches in train set will be chair car type for day travel. 2. These train sets will be procured in multiples of basic Units of four coaches each which can be attached or detached from the train as per requirement. This will improve reliability and operational efficiency as it will be possible to replace basic units in case of defects, or augment the train length up to 24 coaches due to increased demand. The present train sets do not have this feature. As a result, the entire train set is rendered ineffective in case of any defect in a coach. 3. All the train sets will be provided with cab AC in DTCs , above roof HT equipment, 25 KV Roof through HT cable assembly with associated accessories like insulators, jumper cables etc. 4. These light weight energy efficient train sets will have a ride index of less than 3.5 against the earlier value of less than 4, which will improve passenger comfort even for longer journeys. 5. These optimized train sets will also be suitable for operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the electrics will be tested for continuous operations at 160 kmph. 6. These train sets to reach the top speed of 160 kmph in maximum 140 seconds. The new train sets will provide an actual saving of 20 per cent in journey time and all equipment are suitable for flooding conditions. 7. Train set to be provided with explosion proof, light weight lithium-iron-phosphate batteries specified to provide back up for duration of 3 hours, state of the art aluminium body roof mounted packaged unit (RMPU) type air-conditioning units with thermal comfort based Microprocessor controller. 8. The peak efficiency of propulsion system of these train sets will not be less than 87 per cent which provides for a more robust, efficient and reliable system. This current tender was floated on December 22 last year by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, and was opened on Friday (July 10). There are Six contenders for this tender including a Indo-China joint venture, CRRC Pioneer Electric (India) Private Limited. Major international players like Bombardier, Alstom, Siemens, CAF, Talgo and Mitsubishi did not participate in the bids. The six bidders are CRRC Pioneer Electric (India) Private Limited, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Hyderabad-based Medha Group, Electrowaves Electronic Pvt Ltd , Bharat industries Sangrur and Mumbai-based Powernetics Equipments Pvt Ltd. I am an avid traveler, like to see places of interest - Historic, Natural Beauty, Hindu Pilgrimage sites, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, popular tourist destinations. I capture what I am fascinated with and I also capture my journey by train, Rail Road, Ship, Air. I am fascinated by the uniqueness and diversity of the different modes of transportation. My Camera Gear - I use different Cameras for different purposes. My TOP Camera for long Zoom and some fascinating 4K stuff it is Panasonic FZ 300. Canon G7X MKII is my ideal choice for wonderful Video logging and some night photos. For catching actions, scenes on the go, and some hard stuff to catch using normal camers I use GoPro - GoPro Session 5 and GoPro Hero Black. For on the spot, on the Go and unanticipated and unexpected catches I use my new iPhone XR / OnePlus 6. Catch my Travel Experiences om my channel " Travel with Ram " - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIdwMTDfH-Mqep4-txds62Q/