The Railway Minister has rejected the reports of delay in starting the manufacturing process of Vande Bharat Sleeper Train. It is being claimed that the manufacturing process of the train is getting delayed due to issues related to design approval.
According to PTI news, Vaishnav said that design is never an issue for the Russian company that was chosen to manufacture these trains. The news had come that quoting the officials of the Russian company Transmashholding (TMH), Indian Railways has demanded toilets and pantry cars in the train, for which it has become necessary to change the design of the train. The Railway Minister has rejected this.
The report said that the company addressed the Railway Ministry’s concerns regarding the design changes and sent it to the ministry for approval, but the ministry has not yet given its consent. The Railway Minister also rejected this. The report said that according to the agreement, the company has to make 1,920 coaches of Vande Bharat Sleeper Train.
Work is being done rapidly to increase production
Indian Railways is working at a fast pace to increase the production of Vande Bharat sleeper trains. The indigenously developed Vande Bharat sleeper trains will cover long distances and overnight journeys. After BEML, the national transporter is working to start manufacturing 1920 coaches for Vande Bharat sleeper trains at its Latur-based Rail Coach Factory.
According to ETNow, the national transporter has awarded the contract to manufacture the new edition of the Vande Bharat Express train to three companies – BEML, Kinet Railway Solution (a joint venture between Russian rolling stock major TMH and Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd), and a consortium of Titagarh Rail Systems Ltd and Bharat Heavy Engineering Ltd (BHEL). Of these, Kinet Railway Solution will produce coaches for Indian Railways’ Vande Bharat sleeper trains under a contract worth US$6.5 billion.
The first Vande Bharat sleeper train will run on this route
According to the news, the first Vande Bharat Sleeper train will run on the New Delhi to Srinagar route. The commercial operation of this train will start in January 2025. This semi-high-speed train will run on the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link, which will provide passengers a better travel experience with modern facilities. The Vande Bharat Sleeper train will cover the distance of more than 800 km between New Delhi and Srinagar in less than 13 hours. This will be the first time that there will be direct rail connectivity between New Delhi and the Kashmir Valley, where there is no such direct connectivity till now.
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