ICF: 75 Vande Bharat rakes to roll out by August next year

CHENNAI: Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw flagged off the 12,000th LHB coach rolled out by the Integral Coach Factory here on Friday and reiterated that there is no question of privatisation of Railways.

The Minister inspected the Vande Bharat Express coaches under production at the LHB shed of Furnishing Factory, ICF. The first two prototype rakes are planned to be turned out by August 2022 and the Indian Railways is committed to roll out 75 Vande Bharat rakes by August 2023, the ICF said.

Following inspection of the ICF, Vaishnaw flagged off the 12,000th Linke Hofmann Busch AC-II Tier Coach at furnishing factory in the presence of General Manager, ICF, AK Agarwal and senior railway officials.

“This is a great milestone in the history of Indian Railways and a bench mark in modernisation of passenger train services. ICF is the first production unit of Indian Railways to achieve such a benchmark in the production of LHB coaches,” the ICF said in a statement. “I congratulate the Team ICF for the design and development of these coaches which is of world class,” he said.