Vande Bharat is India’s indigenous semi-high-speed train system. It is getting a boost, with the Indian Railways plan to bring out at least 10 new trains by August 2022. This will also honor the country’s 75th independence.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav is said to have reviewed the project shortly after taking office. He has directed that the rollout plan be pushed to connect at least 40 cities with the Vande Bharat trains by August 2022. It will demonstrate a visible upgrade in the country’s rail services.
Medha, a Hyderabad-based engineering firm that won the bid to supply the electrical systems for 44 Vande Bharat trains in February. The organization is now urged to speed up its manufacturing schedule. So that at least two prototypes may be rolled out by March next year after all trials are completed.
Along with all of the trials and testing required to approve a Vande Bharat, the prototype train set that it is stable and must also complete 1 lakh kilometers of commercial operation. The train must run properly with passengers before the next lot can be put into production.
As a result of these issues, the Vande Bharat trains could take months to launch. The plan was to put the first set of trains on the lines without the thrust by December 2022 or early 2023. Suneet Sharma, the chairman of the Railway Board, convened a meeting on Saturday.
According to sources, it was attended by relevant Board members, General Managers of production units, the Research Design and Standards Organisation, and other engineers to smooth out the faults of the new plan on a war footing.
The Vande Bharat has faster acceleration and deceleration. all because of its distributed power mechanism, allowing it to maintain a greater average speed despite stoppages. This ensures that the Vande Bharat needs to complete its runs quicker than ordinary loco-hauled trains, like the Rajdhani and Shatabdi. Both of them lose time and speed when they have to stop and gather speed again.
The Vande Bharat is India’s answer to modern rail travel, with automatic doors, airline-style seating, and updated features for passenger comfort and convenience.
Only two Vande Bharat trains are currently running: one from Delhi to Varanasi, which PM Modi inaugurated in 2019, and another from Delhi to Katra. The goal is to have 100 of these trains by the end of the year.
The contract to supply electricals for 44 of them was awarded to Medha this year. After renewed specifications were formalized during deliberations with industry players over the previous years.
CAF, a Spanish coach-making company, had previously been charged with supplying one prototype rake, which is yet to arrive. The Railways Rolling Stock Program is yet to approve the production of 59 more Vande Bharat Trains.
