Indian Railways 'Vande Bharat' Trains To Have 'first-in-India' Rotating Seats

Tata Steel will manufacture 'First-in-India' 180 degree rotating seats for the Vande Bharat express trains, popularly known as Train 18. The Tata Group company, India's largest steel maker, intends to spend Rs 3,000 crore on Research and Development by Financial Year 2026 and will begin rolling out seating systems for Vande Bharat Express trains in September 2022. Tata Steel's Composites division has received a Rs 145 crore bulk contract for Vande Bharat express seating systems, which involves the supply of entire seating systems for 22 train sets, each with 16 coaches. This would be the first time that seats built in India will be fitted on semi-high speed trains.

Not only will Vande Bharat trains have 180-degree rotating seats, but they will also have aircraft-style passenger amenities. "This is a first-in-India supply that will be carried out over a 12-month period beginning September 2022," Debashish Bhattacharjee, Vice President, Technology & New Materials Business, Tata Steel, apprised.

"Composites industry in India is dominated by institutional businesses and is largely dependent on infrastructure, industrial and railway sectors. One of the key initiatives of the composites business was to convert to Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) applications where steel is currently being used. Railways has been a promising customer for the FRP Composites business of Tata Steel."

The FRP used in the chairs will be more corrosion resistant and require less maintenance. Furthermore, it will meet the European requirement for fire-retardant properties, improving passenger safety and comfort. Vande Bharat Express, also known as Train 18, is India's second fastest train, travelling at a speed of 130 km/hr.

According to business officials, the company's goal is to be among the "Top 5 in technology in the steel industry globally by 2030," and one of the major enablers for reaching technology leadership is the rapid conversion of concepts into pilot testing and commercialization.

Bhattacharjee said Tata Steel is setting up a greenfield facility to produce Sandwich panels. "Tata Steel is setting up a greenfield facility at Khopoli, Maharashtra, in collaboration with a technology partner from the Netherlands." The plant will produce aluminium honeycomb cored sandwich panels, which will mostly be used for the interiors of rail and metro coaches. "Global metro and rail coach OEMs, as well as Indian Railways, would be key customers for the unit," he said.