Indian Economy-News & Updates

[danger007]

You observations are correct sir but it is pertinent to point out above, that one part of reason for above is, India using Broad gauge in place of slightly shorter Standard gauge used elsewhere. this has bearing on dimensions and therefore weight.
Second, the bogie design (by which i mean the wheel and mounting for coaches) is slightly different, which again impacts how the coach itself is designed.
Third (& most important) is the carrying capacity. Nowhere in the world, passenger trains carry as many passengers per rake, as they do in India. As platform lengths are fixed, we cannot increase coaches beyond a number (this is ~24/26 right now) and hence, out coaches are higher to allow multi-layer accommodation of berths.
Al these factors make our coaches bulky and this becomes a significant constraint when you do dynamic stability analysis for coaches. As speed increases, the un sprung mass oscillates and creates lateral forces on tracks, which can be damaging at high speeds.
Therefore if you compare our coaches with other high speed services elsewhere in world, one immediate difference that is noticeable is height of our coaches, which is significantly higher. Low height coaches along with clever distribution of mass, keep center of Gravity lower, thereby improving stability of train at high speed.
Another thing is use of material and their design. Indian railways till now have been using Carbon steel for coach fabrication. Now normally as an industry practice, carbon steel (which is prone to atmospheric corrosion) sheets are usually of higher thickness (higher corrosion allowances) and thereby increase in weight is expected.
Use of austenitic stainless steel (such as 302, 304 etc) is quite common in western countries. SS has much better corrosion resistance and this brings down weight of coach.
they also use a corrugated sheet design. Corrugations allow a metal sheet of lower thickness to have higher rigidity and load bearing capacity, than flat sheets.
View attachment 319609
Adtranz had supplied original 11 WAP 5 in corrugated side panel design, but when production started in India, this sheet couldnot be manufactured and we went for plain sheet design (lower thickness, CORTEN sheets).
View attachment 319610
Original WAP 5
View attachment 319611
CLW make WAP 5

COrugation design was tried on New Delhi Amritsar Swarn Shatabdi, but with advent of LHB coaches. this was not replicated elsewhere.
View attachment 319612

New LHB coaches are made of Stainless Steel and offer much better acoustic insulation along with lower weight.

View attachment 319614 View attachment 319613 View attachment 319615
With time, Indian coaches too should become relatively lighter, but in my view, reduction to the levels used in HST, won't be possible.

Am not referring about gauge but the material using in our coaches... in terms of tonnage...


CHENNAI:At least 300 units of high quality and lighter weight Linke-Hoffman-Busche (LHB) railway coaches, which were manufactured by Railway production units using German technology, are lying unused across the country, as there aren’t enough power cars to provide electricity inside the coaches to passengers.
This has created an issue for various zonal railways across the country, including Southern Railway, to announce new trains to deal with the passenger rush, according to an internal communication of the Indian Railways.
Unlike other regular coaches manufactured by production units like Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai, LHB coaches don’t have a self-generating system to power the light bulbs, fans and tubelights in the coaches. Normal coaches have an alternator, which generates electricity while the train moves.
However, LHB coaches lack this arrangement and need an End on Generation (EOG) coach or power car, which is basically a railway coach with a generator, which powers the entire train. Remember the loud noise you heard while the final coach of a Rajdhani or Shatabdi Express zips pass a station? That is made by the generator coach, two of which power each of these high-speed trains, which are formations only of LHB coaches.
According to highly placed railway officials, these power cars were originally being manufactured at the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) in Kapurthala, Punjab.
Indian Railways has laid greater emphasis on the manufacture of more LHB coaches as they have better safety features and their lighter weight enables trains to move faster. But this has not been backed up with a corresponding increase in the manufacture of power cars, due to certain issues at RCF, a railway official said. Because of this technicality, zonal railways are unable to use the LHB coaches that are lying at various yards.
At Southern Railway, sources said that around 80 LHB coaches are lying unused, few of which can be spotted at the Salt Cotaurs yard near Basin Bridge junction. To tackle this, the ICF has been asked to produce these power cars on a war footing from August-end. Already three power cars have been dispatched in September, while two more have been readied in October.
“The issue is likely to be brought under control within a few months,” the railway official said.

The fact our railways struck at old age thinking barring some voices across politic parties...

 

[Nilgiri]

Kia Motors expected to pick site for first India plant next month

SEOUL/NEW DELHI: South Korea's Kia Motors Corp is expected to pick a site next month for its first factory in India, stepping up plans to start making cars in one of the world's fast-growing auto markets, two people familiar with the matter said.

The move would enable Kia to leverage the existing supplier base of its affiliate Hyundai Motor Co, India's second-biggest automaker by sales. The proposed factory would start production in 2019 and eventually have capacity to make 300,000 Kia vehicles a year, one of the people told Reuters - a major bet for a firm that sold 3.05 million vehicles last year.

The Korean pair, jointly the world's No.5 carmaker, are chasing new business after missing annual targets in 2015 for the first time since the 2008 global financial crisis. Their combined sales fell 2 percent in first-half 2016, hit by weakness in markets like China, Russia and Brazil.

India is likely to become the world's third-largest car market by 2020, according to IHS, up from fifth place now, with annual sales nearly doubling to about 5 million vehicles from 2.7 million in 2015.

The size of Kia's investment has yet to be decided, one of the people said, declining to identify which models will be produced at the factory. Kia is best known as a maker of relatively inexpensive cars, like the Rio sub-compact.

Three sites are under consideration for the plant, and Kia may announce the plan in September after deciding on a location in August, the second person said.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the project was confidential.

The states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat have all been wooing Kia, according to two other people with knowledge of the matter. One of the two, an official with the Andhra Pradesh administration, said the state - which neighbors Tamil Nadu, home of Hyundai's existing plants near Chennai - is the frontrunner.

Kia said in a statement to Reuters on Thursday that it was "continually evaluating potential locations for overseas manufacturing facilities, including India, to secure additional engines for future growth. However, as of now no concrete plans have been finalised."

MARUTI CHALLENGE?

Hyundai started India production nearly two decades ago and has two factories in India that make cars for the domestic market and for export to Europe and elsewhere.

The firm trails only Maruti SuzukiBSE 0.51 % India Ltd in sales in India, and has an extensive service and dealer network that gives it an advantage over global rivals that have struggled to build market share including General Motors, Toyota Motor Corp and Volkswagen.

Kia's South Korea factories accounted for 57 percent of its sales last year. It also has plants in China, the United States and Slovakia, and its first Mexico factory began production earlier this year.

For the time being most cars sold in India are small. Hyundai sells several low-priced vehicles in the country, which could present a challenge in terms of market positioning for Kia, which would not want to cannibalise Hyundai sales.

Hyundai shares parts and vehicle underpinnings with Kia, which Hyundai bought at the height of the Asian financial crisis in 1998. Differentiating their brands has been a challenge, as they compete in similar segments and markets.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...dia-plant-next-month/articleshow/53333547.cms

 

[MKC]

Update on connectivity to North-East

Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal broad gauge rail project, Manipur

Map of railways in NE India with under construction projects.

Atlas colour key.

 

[Ankit Kumar 002]

Railways to start trial of Talgo trains on Delhi-Mumbai section from August one
By Express News Service Published: 21st July 2016 10:34 PM Last Updated: 21st July 2016 10:34 PM
Email2

A vendor walks near the Spanish train Talgo after it arrives at Moradabad Railway Station during its first trial run between Bareilly and Moradabd on Sunday. | PTI
NEW DELHI: Indian Railways will start the trials of Spanish-made Talgo trains on the busiest Delhi-Mumbai section from August 1 after its successful trials on Mathura-Palwal, where it achieved 180 kmph with fully loaded capacity Thursday.
The trials on Delhi-Mumbai section will be done at a maximum speed of 150 kmph for nearly a month before a report is submitted to Railway Board. At present Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani runs at an average speed of 80 kmph covering 1388 km distance between the two cities in 16 hours. Talgo coaches can cut the journey time between Delhi and Mumbai by 4 hours 30 minutes.
“The primary results so far are similar to as claimed by the company and we will make a detailed report on other technicalities. Next week we will conduct trials of emergency braking distance system which means distance it takes to stop after applying emergency break at 160 kmph,” said a senior railway officer monitoring the trials.
With Railways working to increase speed of trains, Talgo trains can be a game changer if they succeed in achieving claimed targets of running on existing rails at 180 kmph without any major infrastructure changes. At present, Gatimaan Express is the fastest train at 160 km/hr.
The cost of a Talgo coach is Rs 5 crore and it requires minimal infrastructure upgrade to run on Indian rails. Talgo envisages the journey between Delhi and Mumbai can be completed in about 11 hour 40 minutes as compared to 16 hours 10 minutes at present.
The Talgo coaches can run on curved rails without decelerating speed. Besides reducing travel time, Talgo's lighter trains consume 30 percent less energy. The Railways has set up a Mobility Directorate to work on strategies to increase speed of trains. Gatimaan Express – India's first semi-high speed that clocks 160 kmph, was launched on the Delhi-Agra route in April.
http://www.newindianexpress.com/nat...from-August-one/2016/07/21/article3540764.ece

 

[MKC]

Broad gauge engine reached to Udaipur, Tripura.
52 km from capital Agartala.

& many of them are seeing locomotive for first time.

 

[AndrewJin]

You observations are correct sir but it is pertinent to point out above, that one part of reason for above is, India using Broad gauge in place of slightly shorter Standard gauge used elsewhere. this has bearing on dimensions and therefore weight.
Second, the bogie design (by which i mean the wheel and mounting for coaches) is slightly different, which again impacts how the coach itself is designed.
Third (& most important) is the carrying capacity. Nowhere in the world, passenger trains carry as many passengers per rake, as they do in India. As platform lengths are fixed, we cannot increase coaches beyond a number (this is ~24/26 right now) and hence, out coaches are higher to allow multi-layer accommodation of berths.
Al these factors make our coaches bulky and this becomes a significant constraint when you do dynamic stability analysis for coaches. As speed increases, the un sprung mass oscillates and creates lateral forces on tracks, which can be damaging at high speeds.
Therefore if you compare our coaches with other high speed services elsewhere in world, one immediate difference that is noticeable is height of our coaches, which is significantly higher. Low height coaches along with clever distribution of mass, keep center of Gravity lower, thereby improving stability of train at high speed.
Another thing is use of material and their design. Indian railways till now have been using Carbon steel for coach fabrication. Now normally as an industry practice, carbon steel (which is prone to atmospheric corrosion) sheets are usually of higher thickness (higher corrosion allowances) and thereby increase in weight is expected.
Use of austenitic stainless steel (such as 302, 304 etc) is quite common in western countries. SS has much better corrosion resistance and this brings down weight of coach.
they also use a corrugated sheet design. Corrugations allow a metal sheet of lower thickness to have higher rigidity and load bearing capacity, than flat sheets.
View attachment 319609
Adtranz had supplied original 11 WAP 5 in corrugated side panel design, but when production started in India, this sheet couldnot be manufactured and we went for plain sheet design (lower thickness, CORTEN sheets).
View attachment 319610
Original WAP 5
View attachment 319611
CLW make WAP 5

COrugation design was tried on New Delhi Amritsar Swarn Shatabdi, but with advent of LHB coaches. this was not replicated elsewhere.
View attachment 319612

New LHB coaches are made of Stainless Steel and offer much better acoustic insulation along with lower weight.

View attachment 319614 View attachment 319613 View attachment 319615
With time, Indian coaches too should become relatively lighter, but in my view, reduction to the levels used in HST, won't be possible.

@anant_s Bro, I'm wondering how broad is a regular passenger train in India? I notice India's sleeper trains have extra beds on the aisle, while in other countries that adopt standard gauge tracks, we only have some seats there.

 

[Grevion]

Broad gauge engine reached to Udaipur, Tripura.
52 km from capital Agartala.

& many of them are seeing locomotive for first time.

Looks like the excited crowd hijacked the loco.
Good thing they didn't asked the loco pilot for a ride.

 

[MKC]

Looks like the excited crowd hijacked the loco.
Good thing they didn't asked the loco pilot for a ride.

Doesn't matter, pictures were uploaded on IndiaRailInfo on 17th March so just after Monsoon they will get joy of passenger trains.
But I don't know why am I not able to get updates on trains to Udaipur as BG locomotives ran on 17th March & even today I couldn't get information when will freight train will run or already reached.

 

[anant_s]

@anant_s Bro, I'm wondering how broad is a regular passenger train in India? I notice India's sleeper trains have extra beds on the aisle, while in other countries that adopt standard gauge tracks, we only have some seats there.

Two types of coaches are under service Integral Coach factory (ICF) and LHB coaches.

Seating capacity and layouts are as follows:

Air Conditioned Coaches (In decreasing order of fare)

First AC

Second AC

Third AC

Seating Double Decker Coaches

Non Air Conditioned Coaches

Seating Coaches

 

[AndrewJin]

Two types of coaches are under service Integral Coach factory (ICF) and LHB coaches.
View attachment 319721

Seating capacity and layouts are as follows:

Air Conditioned Coaches (In decreasing order of fare)

First AC
View attachment 319724

Second AC

View attachment 319725

Third AC

View attachment 319726

Seating Double Decker Coaches
View attachment 319729

Non Air Conditioned Coaches
View attachment 319728

Seating Coaches
View attachment 319727

Comparably, our latest EMUs have the following standardised parameters (all future EMUs will share the same)

Width 3360mm
Height 4050mm
Lengths 209m (4M+4T).

But our conventional trains are not as broad as Indian trains.
Hard seat, lowest class in China

 

[anant_s]

Comparably, our latest EMUs have the following standardised parameters (all future EMUs will share the same)

But our conventional trains are not as broad as Indian trains.
Hard seat, lowest class in China
View attachment 319734

Andrew, i suppose, EMUs are daytime trains and might not be offered on overnight services.
Even Shatabdi express offers only Seating accommodation as these are short distance intercity express trains.
Most overnight trains in India offer sleeping accommodation of some kind and i'm sure so would trains in China on similar service profile.

 

[AndrewJin]

Andrew, i suppose, EMUs are daytime trains and might not be offered on overnight services.
Even Shatabdi express offers only Seating accommodation as these are short distance intercity express trains.
Most overnight trains in India offer sleeping accommodation of some kind and i'm sure so would trains in China on similar service profile.

There are also sleeper EMUs in China. This will be the new trend in China in the coming decade, sleeper EMUs replacing conventional sleeper trains.

The longest EMU service of daytime in China covers 2500km(13hours, 25 stops). More than that number, I think it should be sleeper EMUs. No need to have 300+km/h speed, 200-250km/h is enough. So if a sleeper EMU leaves at 18:00 and arrives at 9am, with several midway stops before 20:00 and after 7am, it can easily cover 3000km.

Another tendency of China's conventional train services is to introduce semi-high-speed locomotives on HSRs at night since EMU sleeper trains are quite expensive. Now, there are only 160km/h sleeper trains on some HSRs, but they are testing higher speed with the newest locomotives. However, compared to daytime EMUs, sleeper trains no matter what kind are becoming increasingly unpopular here. Especially for young Chinese, they think it "lame" and "not cool". I could never agree.

Sleeper EMU

Two types of coaches are under service Integral Coach factory (ICF) and LHB coaches.
View attachment 319721

Seating capacity and layouts are as follows:

Air Conditioned Coaches (In decreasing order of fare)

First AC
View attachment 319724

Second AC

View attachment 319725

Third AC

View attachment 319726

Seating Double Decker Coaches
View attachment 319729

Non Air Conditioned Coaches
View attachment 319728

Seating Coaches
View attachment 319727

Really like that double-decker train.
I could not remember how long I have not taken one.
I've heard CRRC is working on double-decker EMUs and double-decker sleeper EMUs (we used to have double decker sleeper trains, dunno they exist or not) like those in France, but you know the weight and height is a problem.

 

[anant_s]

That looks amazing.
Don't think even Business class air travel would give you that kind of luxurious treatment.
I won't mind paying premium fare for such comforts really.

 

[AndrewJin]

That looks amazing.
Don't think even Business class air travel would give you that kind of luxurious treatment.
I won't mind paying premium fare for such comforts really.

I have never tried yet.
No such service in my city since my city is at the very centre of HSR network, daytime EMUs are enough.
But I do think there should be more such trains, at least offering another choice for passengers who are plane-phobic (not me) or plane-abhorrent (like me).
Considering price, I have just searched, it is not that expensive.
Shanghai-Guangzhou, 1725km, 830yuan, around $120.
And sometimes 20-30% discount is offered if it is not during the high season, discount on discount if you buy round trips.

Dining car of EMU sleeper

 

[anant_s]

First look of your future Metro
Reporting by Sanjay Mandal and Subhajoy Roy
The first of 14 trains built by Chinese company Dalian for the Calcutta Metro is on course to join the fleet by June 2017, kick-starting the transition from snag-prone “assembled” coaches to speedier, smoother and smarter rakes. The remaining 13 trains are scheduled to arrive around 10 months after the first one, officials said. The imported trains, with an average speed of 65kmph, will run concurrently with the ageing rakes of the original fleet and the air-conditioned ones manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory in Perambur, Chennai. Two AC rakes from the Chennai unit are expected to arrive around six months before Dalian delivers its first. Metro brings you the first look of the Dalian fleet and highlights its key features.

SMARTER COLOURS:
The body of the train is coloured silver with purple stripes. The driver’s cabin has an LED board displaying the name of the terminal station in three languages.

SPEEDIER TRAVEL:
The China-made prototype has a top speed of 80kmph, similar to that of the rakes supplied by the Chennai factory. The difference lies in the average speed — Dalian promises 65kmph, which is 10kmph more than what the existing AC rakes are capable of delivering.


Dalian’s aerodynamic design — the face of the rake is distinctively curved, unlike the flat front of the Indian rakes — apparently helps the train pick up speed faster and reduces energy consumption too.

“The existing rakes consume more energy while gathering speed because of higher wind resistance. A curved face helps in cutting through wind with less effort, which translates into lower energy consumption,” an official said.

But Metro Railway would need to “upgrade” its tracks to use the higher average speed that a Dalian train is capable of delivering.

WIDER DOORS:
Dalian’s answer to the commuter crush at every door during rush hour is to provide wider ingress and exit in every coach. The doors of the Chinese rake are 20cm wider than that of the India-made AC rakes. The vestibules are 1,450mm wide, more than double that of the existing ones. This is meant to enable commuters to move from one coach to another comfortably.

BETTER COOLING:
The roof-mounted air-conditioning system that Dalian uses is more advanced than that of the existing rakes. The drains meant to flush out water from the cooling unit have “slopes” to ensure there is no leaking roof. The AC rakes built in Chennai have a design defect that causes leakage. Since the drains don’t have slopes, water can’t be flushed out, an engineer with Metro Railway said.

BRIGHTER INTERIORS:
Coaches in the Chinese rake have LED lighting, which provides more illumination with less energy consumption. The existing coaches have dim lights that often malfunction. Metro officials say Dalian’s lighting system is far superior to what commuters in Calcutta are used to.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160721/jsp/calcutta/story_97894.jsp#.V5JCmdR95kj

Existing Rakes on Kolkata Metro

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@AndrewJin So Dalian locomotives and rolling stock becomes successful bidder in Kolkata Metro rail network modernization program. Hope it is a beginning of long and fruitful business partnership between two nations in rail transportation sector.

@Rain Man