A Rs 307 crore Ahmedabad Vande Bharat maintenance hub is being developed at Sabarmati Integrated Coaching Depot, allowing Western Railway to undertake major maintenance of 24-coach Vande Bharat trainsets within the city once the facility becomes operational, according to a report by Gujarat Samachar – Ahmedabad.
The project is being implemented by the Ahmedabad division of Western Railway as part of Phase 2 of the Sabarmati depot development. The planned facility will support Soft Schedule-1 maintenance of a 24-coach trainset in approximately 30 days and Soft Schedule-2 maintenance in about 45 days, the report said.
The maintenance capacity is expected to cover approximately 12 rakes annually for SS-I work or eight rakes annually for SS-II work. The facility is intended to reduce the need to send Vande Bharat trainsets to other locations for scheduled major maintenance, although the report did not specify the present destinations or the exact date of commissioning.
The proposed hub includes a heavy repair shed, wheel care shed, section sheds, a tandem wheel lathe shed, a drop pit and retractable overhead equipment. Some of the principal structures have been completed, while other construction and installation work remains in progress.
The 75-metre-by-40-metre wheel care shed has been completed. It is designed for wheel and axle overhauling, resurfacing and turning, with provision for CNC surface wheel lathes, CNC axle-turning lathes, dynamic wheel-balancing machinery and a hydraulic wheel press.
The heavy repair shed, measuring 322 metres by 25 metres, is nearly complete and will have two maintenance lines. One line will use synchronised pit jacks to lift coaches and remove their bogies. The second line will support work on coach interiors, passenger facilities, braking systems and other electrical equipment.
A separate section shed measuring 322 metres by 20 metres is being developed for the removal, repair and reassembly of major train systems. These include traction transformers, traction converters, traction motors, auxiliary converters, pantographs and roof-mounted package units.
The depot’s supporting rail infrastructure is also advancing. The report said that rail linking across four stabling lines, totalling 2,547 metres, has been completed. Construction of a 30-metre-by-20-metre electrical substation building has also been completed.
The project’s operational significance lies in bringing heavy maintenance capability closer to the Vande Bharat services handled by the Western Railway network in the region. Unlike routine inspections or lighter servicing, the planned work involves trainset-level systems, bogies, wheels, electrical equipment and passenger-facing components. The facility’s final operational capacity, commissioning schedule and maintenance protocols were not provided in the report.
According to the report, once the machinery and technical systems are installed and the hub becomes operational, Sabarmati will have expanded capacity for organised maintenance of Vande Bharat trainsets. The remaining construction and equipment-related work will determine when the depot can begin handling the planned 30-day and 45-day maintenance cycles.
