New Vande Bharat trains likely to be available for commercial operations by mid next year

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing plans to roll out 75 new Vande Bharat Express trains by August 15, 2023, Indian Railways is expecting to have new sets of ultra modern trains commercially available from June 2022 onwards.

“The first prototype rake is planned to be rolled out in March 2022 and the same will be put for commercial service by June 2022,” a senior railway official said.

The railways already told Hyderabad-based firm Medha to advance its production plan, so that at least two prototypes can be rolled out by next March, said the official. Medha secured the contract to supply the electrical systems for 44 Vande Bharat trains in February this year.

The railways also floated a tender for 58 new Vande Bharat trains including design, development, manufacture, integration and testing of traction propulsion electrics.

With both the tenders, the railways expect to have 102 Vande Bharat trains by 2024, two months before the general election.

The new Vande Bharat train sets will have more passenger amenities and safety features including better seating, security system, four emergency windows per coach, disaster lights in all coaches and four emergency push buttons per coach, said the official

In the new sets of trains, there will be a Centralized Coach Monitoring System for all electrical, climate control and functioning of other vital systems of the train.

With the passengers complaining of discomfort in the existing two Vande Bharat trains, in the new trains, there will be a push back arrangement for reclining seats for better passenger comfort, said the official.

To ensure reliability during heavy rains, the trains will also be provided with higher flood protection underframe equipment, said the official.

The coaches will also have the availability of ventilation for three hours in case of failure of power supply to the roof-mounted AC package unit.

At present there are two Vande Bharat trains operating between New Delhi-Varanasi and New Delhi-Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Katra.

The Prime Minister on August 15 had announced that 75 Vande Bharat Express trains will connect different parts of the country in 75 weeks of the Amrit Mahotsav of Independence.