India: Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw attended the opening ceremony of the new facility at BEML’s plant in Bengaluru. Little has been made public so far about its production capacity. The only details disclosed are that the site is fitted with robotic laser welding systems and a range of hydraulic equipment to streamline production.
The steel-bodied rolling stock to be built at the plant is intended for the planned 1,435 mm-gauge Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed line. The Series B-28 trains will have a design speed of 280 km/h and an operating speed of 250 km/h. Each eight-car trainset will be equipped with control systems from local supplier Medha Servo Drives, reduction drives from Austria’s TSA, and signalling from Germany’s Siemens Mobility. Brakes, air-conditioning, doors and sanitary systems will come from another German company, Knorr-Bremse, while seats will be supplied by Spain’s Compin Fainsa.
Visualisation of the first Indian B-28 high-speed train. Source: BEML
BEML signed the contract for the two trainsets with ICF, which is owned by Indian Railways, in October 2024. The deal is worth INR 8.6 bln ($91.2 mln) and is presented as a wholly Indian development carried out without external partners. The trains were originally due for delivery by the end of 2026, but the deadline has since been moved to March 2027.
During the opening ceremony of the new facility at BEML’s plant in Bengaluru. Source: PIBBengaluru/X
Speaking to Moneycontrol, ICF General Manager U Subba Rao said design work on the rolling stock is nearing completion. “We expect prototype manufacturing to begin between April and June. Component designs, including the carbody, bogies, suspension system and doors, are being developed in parallel and are in the final stages,” he said.
For reference: The world of high-speed railways and trains: history and trends. A comprehensive analytical overview from ROLLINGSTOCK
