Supporting the nation in its fight against COVID-19 pandemic, the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) Kapurthala in Punjab has expedited the manufacturing of LHB parcel vans to carry essential goods across the country, an official said here on Tuesday.
RCF Kapurthala had shut down operations following the nationwide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 and resumed work on April 23.
The first patent coach of Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) was approved on January 30 this year, RCF Kapurthala Public Relations Officer Jitesh Kumar said, adding that the RCF was adhering to social distancing norms at the manufacturing facility.
The high-speed parcel vans would accelerate the supply chain of the country's industry, primarily medical equipment for doctors and para-medical staff along with essential goods like dry ration, grocery, and other perishable and non-perishable items, he said.
The newly manufactured LHB parcel vans were not only cost effective but would save time too as transporting essential goods by road was costly and time consuming, he said.
The Railway Board has given us a target of manufacturing 100 LHB parcel vans at RCF. Till now, we have manufactured 77 coaches while the work on the remaining 23 coaches was delayed following lockdown, Kumar said.
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However, now we have expedited the manufacturing to meet the demand, he added.
The PRO said that the German designed LHB parcel vans have a speed of 130 kilometers per hour with luggage carrying capacity of 24 tonne.
This state of the art design parcel vans are equipped with six interior sunken LED lights for better illumination, 32 foldable 2-tier luggage racks for efficient staking of small parcels, sliding doors with protection walls for ease of loading and unloading of goods, three collapsible partition and four compartments for modular use and special dummy sockets to prevent accidental supply in electrical coupler, he said.
Earlier, he had said the RCF would introduce a futuristic e-commerce van (ECV) for online commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal within three to four months.
It is pertinent to mention here that the ECV was planned keeping in mind the online trade of e-commerce companies, he said.
The 160 kmph high-speed coaches would be equipped with Radio Frequency Identification Tags for smart tracking, easily interchangeable with modern supply chain management systems, digital weight display of parcels loaded inside the coach, GPS tracker for real time tracking and mobile app for users to track location of ECV to name a few, he said.
The (ECV) project got delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. But we are expecting to begin the project within the next three to four months' time, he shared.