IIT to help ICF in coach design

Chennai: Does travel in a rusty railway coach make you feel ill at ease? Your long nag­gi­ng wo­­­es may come to an end so­­on.

For swanky ne­w co­a­ches with visually appe­aling de­­signs, optimum safety features and comfort at par with global standards are not very far. Integral Co­ach Factory, the premi­ere coach vendor of Indi­an Railways, has signed an MoU with IIT-Madras for eight different proje­cts to achieve this.

The projects include studying the use of fire ret­ardant, biodegradable and recyclable material in coaches, vibration an­alysis for better passenger comfort and efficient emergency exit windows besides erecting photovoltaic cells atop coaches to tap solar power.

Computer modeling of airflow in AC coaches and designing coaches for sta­ndard and interior furni­shing and skin tensioning of coach walls for imp­ro­ved surface quality are other components of the MoU.

Nearly Rs 25 lakh has been allotted for each of the eight projects, most of which would be over by July 2014, Pankaj Kumar, chief mechanical engine­er, ICF told Deccan Chro­nicle.

Often passenger’s complaint about airflow being high on the upper berth and relatively low in the lower berth, Kumar said adding that computer modeled air conditioning would ensure unifo­rm flow to all parts of the coach.

For instance, eme­rgency exit windows wo­uld be redesigned in such a way that it would open only from inside, unlike the existing ones that give access to people from outside, he added.

Erection of the photovoltaic cells atop coaches is estimated to help meet the power demand of a train up to 60 per cent.

Al­t­e­rnators generate up to 4.5 KV power to keep the fans, lights and ACs running, the photovoltaic cells would generate 2.5-3 KV, which would keep the fans and lights running, said Ashok K. Aga­rwal while displaying the National Energy Conse­rvation award given to Integral Coach Factory recently by the Union go­v­e­rnment for reducing its  power consumption.