Now, Motibagh starts LHB coach overhaul

Nagpur: The 141-year-old Motibagh workshop, under South East Central Railway (SECR), Nagpur division, has come of age with the start of maintenance of Linke-Hofmann-Busch (LHB) coaches. The first coach from Raipur whose period overhaul (POH) was done here rolled out on November 28.
“Till now, the LHB coaches were maintained at Lilwa in West Bengal. It took at least 60 days for the overhaul there.The SECR used to pay Rs13 lakh per coach to Lilwa workshop for maintenance. Now, plans are afoot to maintain all the LHB coaches with SECR at Motibagh workshop, in a phased manner,” said chief works manager Lalit Kumar Dhurandher.
Dhurandher said, “A Rs86 crore upgradation plan of Motibagh is already underway. Once it is in place, we will be maintaining 27 LHB coaches per day. Annually, we will be able to maintain 324 coaches. The arising of coaches with SECR is 100 and we will be able to maintain coaches from other divisions too. The POH of every LHB coach is done after 36-month run.”
The Motibagh workshop also maintains conventional ICF coaches, which are on the way out. The POH of the first LHB coach was unveiled by three employees — R Nair, SK Dhingra, and Vinod Meshram — in the presence of principal chief mechanical engineer (PCME) S Sriniwas, senior divisional mechanical engineer (SrDME) Gunjan Wasnik, and other officials.
“The Motibagh workshop employees were awarded Rs10,000 for becoming Atmanirbhar and the efficiency they showed to take up the challenge,” said Dhurandher.