Railways aims to run 75 Vande Bharat trains by Aug 15 next year

NEW DELHI: Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw a few weeks ago inspected the Vande Bharat trains being manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai. After finding all okay, he handed them over to the R&D wing of the Railway, Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in Lucknow. The RDSO will examine the trains and after being fully satisfied, it will give safety clearance, paving the way for rolling out the trains.

The Indian Railways is aiming to run 75 new Vande Bharat trains by August 15 next year. Therefore, the construction of these trains has been expedited as the target of the Railways is that seven to eight trains should be ready every month. But looking at the pace, it seems that rolling of the trains may get delayed.

IANS tried to speak to the Railway officials and also sent queries to the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, over the seeming delay in the project, but in vain.

According to Indian Railways, some new technology and upgradation is being done in every new Vande Bharat train, due to which gradually the cost is also increasing. The cost of construction of a 16-coach Vande Bharat train has reached around Rs 110 crore-Rs 120 crore, whereas it was started at a cost of Rs 106 crore. The ICF is planning to manufacture around 10 trains every month.

The Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthala and Modern Coach Factory in Rae Bareli will also start manufacturing the coaches to meet the target of 400 Vande Bharat trains in the next 3 years.

A decision was taken to make Vande Bharat on the lines of Make in India, but even after investing crores of rupees, Vande Bharat has not yet gained the momentum that was expected. It is being said that many times the tender process was stalled.