Mumbai: The Western Railway (WR) is planning to upgrade the railway workshop at Lower Parel. The modernisation will increase the capacity of the workshop, which is starved of space, and also equip it to cater to more Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches for their periodic overhaul (POH).
The workshop, built in 1876, was the first in the country to do the overhaul of LHB coaches, which were introduced in premium trains such as Rajdhani and Shatabdi. The Railways has since introduced LHB coaches on other trains, and has been phasing out old coaches built by the Integral Coach Factory.
Ravinder Bhakar, chief public relations officer, WR, said, “The number of LHB coaches coming to the workshop is likely to increase in future. So it is a requirement that certain shops be relocated and state-of-the-art technology be adopted to improve the efficiency. We will soon be sending a proposal to the Railway Board.”
The estimated cost of the modernisation is ₹176.81 crore. The project includes improving the condition of some of the buildings, setting up two paint booths, which will automate the painting of coaches, and the introduction of systems and technologies which will reduce the shunting time and improve material flow.
“With the creation of these infrastructure, the cycle time would come down substantially and the quality of POH will improve,” Mr. Bhakar said.
The workshop in 2017-18 performed the overhaul of 1,748 coaches, which included air-conditioned and non air-conditioned coaches.
The workshop was also the first to introduce robotic cleaning of AC ducts in 2015. Earlier this year, the WR set up an automated storage and retrieval system at a cost of ₹13.86 crore. The system, the first in a zonal railway workshop, completely automated the storage and retrieval of 688 items, reducing the time in locating and procuring small items from hours to minutes.