India's first engineless semi-high speed train - "Train 18" - was rolled out this week by the Integral Coach Factory and will eventually replace the Shatabdi Express for inter-city travel.
The 16-coach 'trainset' built at a cost of Rs 100 crore per rake, with 80 percent Indian components, has been designed for a maximum operating speed of 160 kilometres per hour, officials said.
The fully air-conditioned train, driven by a self-propulsion module, has the potential to become the country's fastest train provided the infrastructure improved, said Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani. The ICF will produce five more such units by the end of 2019-20 production year, he added.
The new train will cut journey time by 15 percent compared to the 30-year old Shatabdi.
With "Train 18" already set to go for trials, the railways will now turn its focus on another project - "Train 20", the next generation aluminium-bodied sleeper class trains that will replace the Rajdhani Express trains on the network and is expected to be rolled out by 2020.
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