‘Speed trial of New Vande Bharat train successful’

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday said newly made semi-high speed train ‘Vande Bharat’ got a green signal from Railway Safety Commissioner and production of the rest 72 trains will start soon.

The trial run of the third rake of the Vande Bharat train has been completed and it is a very proud moment for Indian Railways, he said.

The new train was rolled out from Integral Coach Factory (ICF)in Chennai by the Railway Minister on 12 August.

In the testing process, the Vande Bharat train will be tested at a speed of 180 kmph and will traverse 15,000 km. Following the trials, ICF will manufacture more such trains. As many as 475 such trains will be made in four years to cover all the states, said the officials.

Besides ICF, the Vande Bharat trains will also be manufactured at the Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthala and the Modern Coach Factory in Rae Bareli.

During a trial run of Vande Bharat we already have shown that a fully loaded water glass has not shaken at the speed of 180kmph, he said.

The maximum speed of the third Vande Bharat train is 180 kilometres per hour. It reached 0-100 kmph in 52 seconds as compared to 55 seconds taken by the bullet train. The first generation Vande Bharat trains reach 0-100 kmph in 54.6 seconds and have a maximum speed of 160 kmph,” he added.

The new Vande Bharat trains would have improved features including reclining seats, automatic fire sensors, CCTV cameras, on-demand content with WiFi Facility.

The ‘Kavach’ technology has been installed in these trains for extra security so that automatic breaks could be applied in case any train is coming on the same track.

At present, Indian Railways has two trains ‘Vande Bharat’ which are operational are between New Delhi-Varanasi and New Delhi-Vaishnodevi Katra.

The launching of next generation new Vande ‘Vande Bharat’ and it's route is yet to decide, the Minister said.