India: Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has done a big announcement regarding the Vande Bharat Express trains. As per his recent statement, there will be 3 new versions of the Vande Bharat train. In an interview, he said that the three variants will be Vande Chair Car, Vande Metro and Vande Sleepers. They are named according to the distance that they will travel.
Right now there are 17 Vande Bharat Express trains running on the indian tracks in India and the latest one was launched from Uttarakhand’s Dehradun to Anand Vihar terminal railway station in Delhi. However after this two more types of trains for long distances travelling will be introduced around February, March 2024. The Vande Metro is for travelling up to 100 kilometres where as, the Vande chair car can be opted for travelling for distance between 100 kilometres to 550 kilometres. For travelling of distance more than 550 km, Vande sleepers will be introduced as per Vaishnaw’s sentence to PTI. This will facilitate passengers to choose according to necessity.
New factories to be setup
He was invited for the launch of Vande Bharat train from Dehradun to Delhi where he said that every week a new Vande Bharat Express train is being launched. Every 8 to 9 days a new train is coming out of factories. Now 2 more factories are set to join the pack which will ensure that new train coming out of those factories frequently. He continued to say that by June, each state in India will have a Vande Bharat train. All the trains have been slaked of by Prime Minister Narendra Modi till now.
Railway tracks to be updated
The present Indian railway tracks are capable of handling speed between 72-80 km per hour. But the newly introduced Vande Bharat Express trains are designed to run at a top speed of 160 km per hour. However, as per track capacity they will catch the speed of 130 km per hour. To counter this issue, railway tracks will be upgraded. Then the train will be able to run at its top speed. As per his statement it will take around 3 to 4 years to achieve this goal. Around 30,000 to 35,000 km of track will be upgraded in this time.
