New Delhi: Indian Railways had for the first time planned to manufacture metro rail coaches at its factory located at Rae Bareilly under the Make In India scheme, an official said Thursday.

The coaches planned to be built in India will be manufactured by robots and will meet quality standards with those being manufactured by Canadian company Bombardier. Currently, India uses metro coaches and trains build by the company Bombardier.

The Coaches produced in the country will prove to be cheaper by 40 percent compared to the ones being purchased from China and other countries. The coaches will also have hi-tech facilities like wi-fi, CCTV cameras, mobile charging points among other facilities, the official said.

Apart from that, the metro trains and coaches will also have many safety features like signaling, train management systems and door control along with modern surveillance gadgets on board.

 “We already have had two meetings with the government on producing metro coaches. The Maharashtra government has given it’s approval for coaches for two metro trains,” said Rajesh Agarwal, member (rolling stock), Railway Board.

“We are making a total of six metro coaches as of now,” Mr Agarwal said further adding, that the cost of making each coach would be Rs. 8 crore, while those coaches being procured from China or other countries cost about Rs. 12 crores.

For the construction of Metro coaches, the board has decided to go for standardized versions and has directed Modern Coach Factory (MCF) and Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO) to invest their efforts to make the dream come true, the official said.

According to Mr. Agarwal, the expansion of the MCF will incur a cost of Rs. 480 crore, which includes experts and technicians on a large scale and all these will be completed by December 2018.

“It will also be the first factory in the country where coaches will be produced by robots,” he said.

Metro trains have been recently introduced in the country with in this decade. So, India had to import many of its important and main supplies including coaches. Till now, India imported coaches from Canada and China, and this time, as per the plan, the country plans to come up with its own India-made coaches.

The cost of building such coaches will certainly have a significant impact on total expenditure to procure them. This in turn would encourage more and more metro trains to come up in the country.

You May Also Read: Indian Request Of Mehul Choksi’s Extradition Is Under Examination By Antigua Government