Railways to launch freight version of Vande Bharat Express

Indian Railways, with the aim to get parcels moved faster, has decided to introduce a freight version of the government’s flagship semi-high speed Vande Bharat Express.

The Railway Board, in its letter to general managers of zonal railways on October 11, said this will help the national transporter attract a high volume of freight since it will ensure faster movement.

The railway board also asked zonal offices to identify and interact with potential customers and identify the terminals for running the initial services.

Christened “Freight EMU”, the first service of these trains will be operated between the Delhi-NCR and Mumbai regions. The first parcel train is expected to start its service by December this year, said an official in the railways.

Vande Bharat freight trains have been designed for palletised container transportation at a speed of 160 km/hour. The 1,800-mm wide rakes with automatic sliding doors would have provisions to load reefer containers for temperature-sensitive cargo, a pneumatically retractable roller floor system with locking facility for easy handling of pallets, and a total payload of 264 tonnes, said the official.

The Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, which is manufacturing the bulk of the Vande Bharat trains, is expected to roll out the first freight EMU rake under the Vande Bharat platform in December, said the official.

Already Vande Bharat passenger trains are in service on different routes and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday flagged off the fourth train between Una, in Himachal Pradesh, and New Delhi.