Samikhsya Bureau
In recognition of its Make in India initiatives, the Indian Railways has named the indigenously manufactured Train 18 as Vande Bharat Express on Sunday. The 16-coach train, built in 18 months at a cost of Rs.97 crore by the Modern Coach Factory, Rae Bareli in 18 months is regarded as a successor to the 30-year-old Shatabdi Express.
The train is set to run between Delhi and Varanasi and is driven by a self-propulsion module sans a separate locomotive. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to flag off the train soon. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said that this new train set had been constructed by Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in the period of 18 months under Make in India programme.
Since the launch of Rajdhani trains, Vande Bharat Express is the next major leap for Indian Railways in terms of speed and convenience. It is India’s first semi-high speed train equipped with world class passenger amenities. It can achieve high speeds (max speed of 160 kmph) due to faster acceleration and and will reduce journey time by 25 per cent to 45 percent. The scheduled commute between New Delhi and Varanasi will take approximately eight hours making it 40-50 per cent faster than the fastest train currently connecting these two cities.
Vande Bharat Express incorporates many modern features, which debut for the very first time on Indian Railways. It has been provided with state of the art passenger amenities like on-board WiFi entertainment, GPS based passenger, the minister said. There would be added facilities like information system, CCTVs, bio-vacuum toilets, rotating chairs in executive class “at par with global standards”.
It also has provision of facilities for disabled people. The train will have 16 coaches with chair car type configuration with two executive class chair cars and 14 chair cars, the minister said. Further, it has intelligent braking system with power regeneration for better energy efficiency thereby making it cost, energy and environment efficient, he said.The train would be fully air-conditioned and will stop at Kanpur and Allahabad, the minister said. He added that it would have superior quality of air suspension for comfortable journey of the passengers.
“It is completely made in India and various names were suggested by the general public but we have decided to name it Vande Bharat Express. A gift on the occasion of Republic Day to people,” Goyal said. He has also requested the Railway Board to scale up its production to reduce its overall cost and once the country will have surplus production, it will be exported as well.
