A Make-in-India Success Story
The ‘Make in India’ effort of Indian Railways has culminated into India’s first Semi High Speed Train, “Vande Bharat Express”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi flaged off the maiden run of the train on New Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi route train on 15 Feb 2019 from the New Delhi Railway Station.
Vande Bharat Express can run up to a maximum speed of 160 kmph and has travel classes like Shatabdi Train but with better facilities. It aims to provide a totally new travel experience to passengers.
The Train will cover the distance between New Delhi and Varanasi in eight hours and will run on all days except Mondays and Thursdays.
All coaches are equipped with automatic doors, GPS based audio-visual passenger information system, on-board hotspot Wi-Fi for entertainment purposes, and comfortable seating.
All toilets are bio-vacuum type. The lighting is dual mode, viz. diffused for general illumination and personal for every seat. Every coach has a pantry with facility to serve hot meals, hot and cold beverages. The insulation is meant to keep heat and noise to very low levels for additional passenger comfort.
Vande Bharat Express has 16 air-conditioned coaches of which 2 are executive class coaches. The total seating capacity is 1,128 passengers.
Adding up the green footprints, the train has regenerative braking system in the Vande Bharat Express coaches which can save up to 30% of electrical energy.
Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, a Railways Production unit, has been the force behind a completely in-house design and manufacture, computer modelling and working with a large number of suppliers for system integration in just 18 months.
In keeping with the Prime Minister’s vision of “Make in India”, the major systems of the train have been designed and built in India.
Impact of this train, matching global standards of performance, safety and passenger comfort and yet costing less than half of global prices, has the potential to be a game changer in the global rail business, the Prime Minister Office said in a release on 14 Feb 2019. fiinews.com
