Chennai, May 21 (IANS): Railway coach maker Integral Coach Factory (ICF) will take up the design, development and production of Train 19, a sleeper version of Train 18, now named as Vande Bharat Express train set on the lines of Rajadhani Express, said a senior official of Railway Board.
The ICF will roll out 40 Vande Bharat Express train sets while fitting with the driver cabin crash guard with aluminium design in place of fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) used now.
Speaking to reporters, Rajesh Agrawal, Member (Rolling Stock), said this year ICF will take up design, development and production of Train 19 sets similar to Rajadhani Express.
He said the last fiscal ICF became the world's largest railway coach manufacturer rolling out 3,262 coaches. Agrawal hoped the coach maker will touch a production of 4,000 coaches this fiscal.
Agrawal said some south-east Asian and South American nations have evinced interest in importing Train 18. However, after fulfilling the needs of Indian Railways, the same will be considered, he added.
According to Agrawal, about Rs 2,500 crore infrastructure improvement projects are being planned for coach production units of Indian Railways, of which Rs 500 crore are planned to be spent for ICF.
He said ICF plans to roll out 12 rakes of air conditioned suburban trains.
Agrawal said the Rail Coach Factory at Lattur in Maharashtra is now getting ready and is likely to be commissioned this year.