‘Zor Ka Jhatka Dheere Se Laga’: Travelling in Train 18 as it clocks over 180 km/hour

New Delhi: India’s first engine-less train, known as Train 18, crossed the 180 km per hour (kmph) speed limit during a trial run on Sunday. Sharing a video of the trial run in his tweet, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal quipped, “Zor Ka Jhatka Dheere Se Laga,” referring to the second trial run of the fully air-conditioned Train 18 that was conducted in Kota.“The stability of water bottles at this speed is testament to the quality of workmanship and design of our engineers,” the railway minister said.

Train 18 will replace the current Shatabdi Express—a day train. Train 18 is capable of touching 200 kmph provided the rest of Indian Railways’ system such as tracks and signals permit, S Mani, General Manager of Integral Coach Factory (ICF) that has manufactured the train, said.

“Train 18 breached the 180 kmph speed limit in the Kota-Sawai Madhopur section. The major trials are now over, with just some more remaining. Based on the reports, fine tuning would be done if needed. As of now no major technical problem has cropped up,” S Mani said.

In its first trial, the train ran at a speed of 115 kmph on tracks in Moradabad.

Train 18, the Rs 100 crore train, when made operational, it will become the country’s fastest train.

“We expect Train 18 to commence its commercial run from January 2019. Normally the trials take three months. But now it is happening faster than expected,” Mani added.

Here is all you need to know about India’s first engineless train, Train 18:

1. Train 18 has aerodynamically designed driver cabins at both ends for quicker turn-around at destinations.

2. Train 18 sports an advanced regenerative braking system which saves power.

3. Train 18—the fully air-conditioned train—offers better passenger comfort and safety, as all equipment are fixed under the carriage, so that more space is available on board.