Railways mulls running Vande Metro on Central-Arakkonam, Chennai Beach-Chengalpattu routes

CHENNAI: Even as it has scheduled the trial run of Vande Metro, the intracity version of the popular train Vande Bharat Express, the Railways is considering several routes, reportedly including Central-Arakkonam, Chennai Beach-Chengalpattu.

Chennai-Tirupati Lucknow-Kanpur and Agra-Mathura are other routes that are under consideration.

At present, electric passenger trains are the main mode of transportation for most people commuting from Chennai to Arakkonam and Chengalpattu.

According to a Maalaimalar report, Railways is studying the feasibility of running Vande Metro on these routes.

Earlier reports on the Vande Metro development said the train would be built using the latest technology, including the ability to speed up and slow down quickly, which would enable the train to have more stoppages without affecting the runtime.

“We have set a target to roll them out this year. Its testing will start in another couple of months," an earlier report by PTI quoted a Railway official as saying.

Official sources told the agency that Vande Metro would have a unique coach configuration in which four coaches would constitute one unit and a minimum of 12 coaches would make one Vande Metro.

In the first phase, the Railways would rollout 12-coach train sets, and consider expanding it to 16-coach version after studying the demand.

(With inputs from PTI)