Bhopal-New Delhi Vande Bharat Express breaches 160 kmph speed limit

Bhopal-New Delhi Vande Bharat Express reached 161 kilometres per hour speed during its launch run on Saturday.

At present the expected speed limit of Vande Bharat Express is 160 kmph but generally it operates at an average speed of 100 km speed, officials said.

The train touched the speed of 161 kmph between Raja ki Mandi in Agra and Mathura, said the official.

A small stretch of the track between the Agra Cantonment and Nizamuddin railway stations has been designed in a manner to fit the speed limit.

Also Read | Bhopal residents praise redeveloped station, say Vande Bharat will save time

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the 11th Vande Bharat Express train on Saturday.

Earlier, the Ministry of Railways had said in an order that the Rani Kamalapati-New Delhi Vande Bharat Express train can run up to a maximum speed of 160 kmph over the Agra Cantonment-Tuglakabad section.

Vande Bharat Express train between Bhopal and New Delhi will reduce the travel time by one hour compared to Shatabdi Express on the same destinations.

Indian Railways, which is planning to produce sleeper coaches of Vande Bharat Express, is designing the train speed limit of 200 km per hour . The railways is planning to produce 200 aluminium coaches for this purpose.

The railways already issued a letter of award (LOA) to Russian rolling stock company Transmashholding (TMH), to start the necessary preparation for manufacturing 120 sleeper rakes of Vande Bharat Express at Latur.

"With the issue of this LOA , the contract stands concluded", the letter issued on March 29 by the Railway Stores Executive Director stated.

The consortium of Russia’s largest rolling stock maker Transmashholding (TMH) and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), a railway public sector firm, has emerged as the lowest bidder for the Rs 58,000-crore tender for produce and maintenance of 200 Vande Bharat trains.