Rlys floats tender for 58 Vande Bharat trains

The railways has floated a tender for 58 Vande Bharat train sets after PM Modi announced in his Independence Day speech 75 such trains will be launched in 75 weeks of ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ to connect different parts of the country.

Currently, only two such Shatabdi-type semi-high speed trains are in operation.

The new coaches will be manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, Modern Coach Factory, Raebarelly and Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala.

With the latest tender, 102 such trains will be delivered to the Railways by March 2024, an official said, adding 75 of them will be available by August 15, 2023.

The next lot of Vande Bharat trains with upgraded amenities, better seating space, security and surveillance systems and features designed for emergencies, is expected to be commercially available from June 2022 onward.

The new passenger amenities and features planned to be added include 4 emergency windows for easy evacuation, backup disaster lights in all coaches and emergency push buttons increased to 4/coach.

The coaches will have a Centralised Coach Monitoring System for all electrical, climate control and functioning of the train’s other vital systems.

An important upgrade in the coaches will include the pushback arrangement for reclining of seats. In the first 2 rakes of the Vande Bharat trains, issues about the seating comfort level had been raised.

The first prototype will be out by March-April 2022, officials said.