Big feat for Indian Railways: This train runs at 180 kmph without engine!

Train 18, Indian Railways' engine-less train today hit a new record, running at 180 km per hour during its trial run on the Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani route. With this, the train designed and built by Integral Coach Factory (ICF) Chennai has become Indian Railways' fastest train.

ICF  General Manager Sudhanshu Mani told Zeebiz.com that Train 18 has registered a speed of 180 kmph today. The train is not only fastest train in India but also cheap, as ICF has built Train 18 at just Rs 100 crore, while the cost of purchasing such train from western countries is around Rs 250 crore. This train is considered to be the biggest feat for the Indian Railways. Once successfully run in the country, there are also possibilities that the engineless train could be exported to other countries too. 

According to reports, the train may register even the speed of 200 kmph. If the trial-run becomes successful, it will improve the Indian Railways train speed. The slow speed of Indian Railways' trains across the network is a big concern for the national transporter.  

The indigenously-made train's test-run is expected to end by this month itself. Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) will prepare a report after the trial-run of the train.

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Indian Railways' Gatimaan Express between Delhi and Jhansi is the fastest train so far, which runs at a speed of 160 kmph.

The successful run of Train 18 will give boost to PM Narendra Modi government's Make in India initiative. This is a big feat for the Indian Railways. Now, the national transporter will be able to build modern trains by itself. If efficiency and speed of trains across the network increase, so will improve its revenues. 

Train 18 will replace the existing train fleet of the Shatabdi Express, Railway Ministry officials earlier said. It added that ICF will make six such train sets, out of which two will have sleeper coaches.