Currently, two Vande Bharat trains are operating in the country. Indian Railways is considering running Vande Bharat trains on many more routes. Meanwhile, Western Railway has been allotted a new rake of Vande Bharat train set from ICF (Integral Coach Factory) located in Chennai. This allocation has been given by the Ministry of Railways.
The new variant will hit a top speed of 180 kmph. Later it is expected to be upgraded to 220 kmph. According to the information, the state-of-the-art Vande Bharat rake with 18 coaches has been allotted to the Western Railway zone. This rake has been fully dispatched to ICF. In this rake, only five percent of work is left in the form of finishing.
The first Vande Bharat train set allotted to Western Railway is almost ready. The work of installing seats in it has been completed. The seats in this new Vande Bharat train are of Sky Blue color. A senior ICF official said that we have almost dispatched this rake. The work of putting the seat in it has been completed. In this, about five percent of the finishing work is now left, which will be completed in a couple of weeks. After that, it will be sent to Western Railway Zone Mumbai as per the instructions of the Ministry of Railways.
According to Western Railway officials, the first Vande Bharat train set has been allotted to Western Railway. For this, we are preparing. We have first prepared the proposal for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route and also made the timetable to run it, but it is still in the preliminary stage. That means it is possible to change it.
The final decision will be taken only after the instructions of the Ministry of Railways on both the route and the timetable. Preparations are being made for all these aspects, where other preparations are to be made for the maintenance of the train. On the instructions of the Ministry of Railways, this rake will come to Mumbai.
The new version of the Vande Bharat Express train will accelerate to 180 kmph (kmph) instead of 160 kmph (kmph), a senior ICF official said. By the year 2025, the speed capacity of the train is expected to be upgraded to travel at a speed of 220 kmph. It can then accelerate to 260 kmph, matching the average speed of high-speed trains in Europe.
Indian Railways has set a target of producing 300 Vande Bharat train sets (2025) in the next three years. This will increase to 500 trains by 2028. By August 2022, the Railways would have manufactured at least 75 of these trains since India gained independence. To meet the target of 500 trains, the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai is targeted to produce around 10 Vande Bharat trains per month.
