“The Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai is readying the design for sleeper variant Vande Bharat trains by December-end,” he said. “The first few trains will be ready by March.”
The minister said around 22 Vande Bharat trains are currently being made as per schedule. “The sleeper trains will allow Vande Bharat trains to be engaged in overnight and longer distance travel,” he said.
He said bids for more Vande Bharat trains are at various stages of completion and localisation would be the key.
Vaishnaw’s comments assume significance in the backdrop of a disagreement between Russia’s TMH and Indian Railways public sector undertaking Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) over the ownership of the consortium that had secured the bid for supply of 120 Vande Bharat sleeper trains.
ET reported on Monday that the Russian group had reached out to the government saying that RVNL’s insistence for a higher stake was in violation of an “irrevocable and binding agreement” between the two. The bid award has been delayed due to the dispute.
People familiar with the matter said the two entities have begun discussions to thrash out the ownership issues.
Existing Vande Bharat trains have chair car coaches and operate as a day trains.
The first Vande Bharat chair car train was also designed and manufactured at ICF.
India’s first semi-high speed train, the Vande Bharat Express was launched in February 2019. The maiden run of the train was on New Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi route from the New Delhi Railway Station. When launched, the train could run up to a maximum speed of 160 kmph with travel classes like Shatabdi train but with better facilities. Newer variants of the train are now targeting speeds of 220 kmph.
The Indian Railways has a production plan of 102 Vande Bharat rakes within Indian Railways production units. These trains are being manufactured at the ICF, Rail coach factory and Modern Coach Factory. In addition, the Railways has also planned to manufacture 400 Vande Bharat trains (sleeper version) of three different technologies.
