Chennai-Tirupati Vande Metro on the anvil; trial run to start from July: Railways

CHENNAI: Soon, you may be able to travel to Tirupati in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh on Vande Metro, the intracity version of the popular train Vande Bharat.

After the huge success of semi-high speed Vande Bharat trains, the Indian Railways is planning to launch the country’s first Vande Metro to transform the intra-city transportation system, said a senior official closely associated with the project.

“All preparations are going on to start its trial run from July so that its services can be offered to people as soon as possible,” the official said.

Reports said the routes that the national carrier has identified include Chennai-Tirupati, Lucknow-Kanpur and Agra-Mathura.

Based on the latest technology to acquire high acceleration and deceleration which will help it cover more stoppages in less time, Vande Metro will have several new features keeping in mind the travel needs of the city dwellers.

“We have set a target to roll them out this year. Its testing will start in another couple of months. Besides having automatic doors and high comfort quotient, it will have many such features which are not available in currently running metro trains,” the official said, adding the details of its additional features along with pictures will be shared for people very soon.

According to Railways sources, it will have a unique coach configuration in which four coaches will constitute one unit and a minimum of 12 coaches will make one Vande Metro. To start with, the Railways will launch a minimum of 12 Vande Metro coaches and will increase coaches up to 16 as per the demand on the route.

“Initially, we will have a 12-coach metro but it can be extended to 16 coaches depending on the demand and need of the city,” the official said, adding the city which will have the first Vande Metro is also being worked out.

Inputs from PTI.