Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
Upgraded Vande Bharat rakes likely to be ready by June 2022
NEW DELHI: The next lot of Vande Bharat rakes with upgraded amenities as well as better seating, security, and surveillance systems along with features designed for emergencies is expected to be commercially available from June 2022 onwards, according to officials aware of the development.
“The first prototype rake is tentatively planned to be dispatched in March 2022, which will be put to commercial service tentatively by June 2022,” a senior official said.
Some of the new amenities/ safety features planned to be added include four emergency windows for easy evacuation of passengers in case of an emergency; disaster lights in all coaches, to be used in the event of failure of all other lights in a disaster situation; more emergency push buttons (four per coach). The coaches will also have a centralized coach monitoring system for all electrical, climate control, and other vital functions of the train set. An important upgrade in the new coaches will be a “pushback arrangement” for better reclining of seats. In the first two rakes, issues regarding the seating comfort level were raised.
The new trains will also have fire survival cables indoor circuits. The coaches will have the availability of ventilation for three hours in case of failure of power supply to the roofmounted AC package unit. “It will also have better availability, a more reliable and bacteria-free air conditioning system, and a higher flood protection underframe equipment to ensure reliability during the monsoon,” the official cited above said.
The development comes following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day announcement on rolling out 75 new Vande Bharat Express trains that will be launched to connect different parts of the country in 75 weeks to mark the “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav”.
The Indian Railways in September last year floated a revised tender for procuring 44 semihigh speed 44 Vande Bharat trains mandating 75% domestic components, making it a domestic tender. The government had earlier scrapped three global tenders for the ambitious project. Hyderabad-based engineering firm Medha, which secured the contract to supply the electrical systems for 44 trains, has been told to advance its production plan so that at least two prototypes can be rolled out by next March.
Modi flagged off the maiden run of a Vande Bharat train on the New Delhi-Varanasi route on February 15, 2019. The second such train service between New Delhi and Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Katra was flagged off by home minister Amit Shah on October 3 that year.