Western Railway’s Ahmedabad Division is building a heavy-overhaul shop for Vande Bharat trains inside the Integrated Coaching Depot at Sabarmati. The second phase of the depot carries an estimated cost of Rs 307 crore, DeshGujarat reported on 19 October, and several of its buildings already stand finished. IANS, in a report carried by NewKerala, gave the same figure and said the facility will spare Western Railway from sending 24-coach Vande Bharat trainsets elsewhere for major maintenance.
Daily checks versus SS-I and SS-II overhauls
A Vande Bharat train gets routine checks on a pit line between trips. The Sabarmati shed targets a different job. Railways call them SS-I and SS-II, scheduled overhauls in which crews lift the coaches, pull out the bogies and strip down the traction and electrical gear. By the division’s estimate, an SS-I overhaul keeps a 24-coach trainset in the shop for about 30 days and an SS-II for about 45.
The kit listed in both reports shows the depth of the work. Section sheds measuring 322 m by 20 m will take apart and rebuild traction transformers, converters, traction motors, pantographs and the roof-mounted air-conditioning packages. A wheel care shed of 75 m by 40 m will hold CNC wheel and axle lathes, a dynamic wheel-balancing machine and a hydraulic wheel press.
One trainset at a time, about 12 a year
The division puts annual capacity at about 12 trainsets for SS-I or eight for SS-II. Divide 365 days by a 30-day overhaul and you get roughly 12, so the plan works out to one 24-coach train in the heavy repair bay at any moment, with a second line in the same bay handling interiors, brakes and electricals. Western Railway has sized the shop for a modest regional fleet.
For passengers in Ahmedabad, the gain shows up in rake availability. Each day a trainset spends travelling to a distant workshop and waiting for a slot is a day it cannot run. A shop next to the city’s own terminal shortens that loop, which matters as Western Railway adds Vande Bharat services out of Gujarat, such as the Surat-Udaipur service we reported on earlier this month.
Wheel shed ready, heavy repair bay close behind
- Wheel care shed: complete and ready to hand over.
- Electrical substation building (30 m by 20 m): completed and handed over.
- Rail links across four stabling lines, about 2,547 m of track: done.
- Heavy repair bay shed (322 m by 25 m, about 86,600 sq ft): nearly finished, with synchronised pit jacks on one line for lifting coaches.
Neither report gives a date for the first Vande Bharat overhaul at Sabarmati. The depot work adds to a run of railway projects around the Sabarmati yard, including the Rs 1,542 crore package for Kavach and the Sarkhej double line we covered in September.
Sources: DeshGujarat, IANS via NewKerala
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.