‘3 Vande Bharat trains to be rolled out per week by next fiscal end’

CHENNAI: Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday said that the railway department was focussed on producing up to three Vande Bharat (VB) trains per week by the end of the next fiscal.

Briefing media persons about the Budget 2023-24 from the national capital, Vaishnaw who interacted with journalists from across the country via video call, said that the eight VB trains under use have covered to the equivalent of 52 times the entire perimeter of the earth without any hazards.

Responding to a specific query on VB trains, he said, "We have to ramp up the supply chain and production. This year, we will expand production to three few facilities, Sonipet in Haryana, Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh and Lattur in Maharashtra. Right now we are doing one VB train every seven days."

"Without four factories producing VB trains simultaneously, we should be able to do two or three Vande Bharat trains every week by the end of the next financial year. The focus is scaling up production. It will fulfil the Prime Minister's vision of covering every major city and small towns by Vande Bharat trains," added the railway minister whose ministry received a capital outlay of Rs 2.40 lakh crore, the highest-ever and nine time the outlay made in 2013-14.

Adding that the ministry was also developing Vande Bharat metro trains, the Union Minister said that within the periphery of 50-60kms of every major city, there are very large habitations from where the people would come to the cities for work and leisure before returning home. "We are coming up with the VB equivalent of metro trains, which would offer a world class shuttle like experience to the people," he said.

“Production and design will be completed this year. In the financial year 2024-25, ramping up of production of VB metro will happen," Vaishnaw added, informing that the first fully indigenous hydrogen train would be rolled out by December 2023.