NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways will need more than 15,000 additional coaches from 2018-2021, minister of state for Railways Rajen Gohain on Wednesday said, citing an internal assessment of the national transporter.

The minister said that including the current year till 2021, the total requirement of coaches would be about 15,269.

In 2018-2019, 5,489 coaches will be required, in 2019-2020, 4,941 coaches will be required, while in 2020-2021 the number will stand at 4,839, he told the told the Lok Sabha .

"Based on the assessed requirement, railways has not felt a need to set up new factories for manufacture of mainline coaches in near future. Presently, the railways does not plan to start the pending projects for mainline coach manufacturing. Sufficient manufacturing capacity is available in the Railway Production Units to cater to requirements," Gohain said.

