Union Minister for Railways Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw inaugurated India’s First Aluminum Freight Rake – 61 BOBRNALHSM1 at Bhubaneswar Railway Station on October 16.
Key features
- The rake’s destination is Bilaspur.
- This is a dedicated effort for Make in India program as it has been fully designed and developed indigenously in collaboration with RDSO, HINDALCO and Besco Wagon.
- It is a fully Lockbolted construction with no welding on superstructure.
- The tare is 3.25 tons lower than normal steel rakes, 180 ton extra carrying capacity resulting in higher throughput per wagon.
- The reduced tare will reduce carbon footprint as lower consumption of fuel in empty direction and more transport of freight in loaded condition.
- A single rake can save over 14,500 tonnes of CO2 over its lifetime.
- 80% is resale value of the rakes.
- Cost is 35% higher as the superstructure is all aluminium.
- There will be lower maintenance cost due to higher corrosion and abrasion resistance.
- Iron industry consumes a lot of Nickel and Cadmium which comes from import. So, proliferation of Aluminum wagons will result in less import. At the same time, this is good for local aluminum industry.
