Something's brewing in Indian railways; ICF manager with clarification

CHENNAI: Till date, the integral coach factory in India has built 75 Vande Bharat Express trains, which includes three servicing in Kerala. Amidst the introduction of these elite trains, there remained qualms about the introduction of sleeper trains in the Vande Bharat series; a long-standing demand of middle class passengers. And now, ending the uncertainty, the railway has come up with a clear answer.

The Railways has stated that the trains with 24-compartment Vande Bharat sleeper coaches will be released for service in August 2026. Integral Coach Factory General Manager U Subba Rao informed that the construction of 10 trains is in progress. Trains with 16 coaches are being built now.

75 trains of the Vande Bharat chair car model, which started service in 2019, were manufactured till July of this year. The trial run of Vandemetro with 12 coaches has been completed and handed over to Western Railway. The first Amrit Bharat train with 22 sleeper coaches with modern facilities was released in October last year.

Subbarao added that the target is to build 3457 coaches in the current financial year. Many countries have already expressed their desire to learn more about Vande Bharat trains in India. The low budget and opulent service are the core reasons for the foreign eyes falling upon the Indian elite train. ICF manager also opened up about discussions on exporting the train rack to foreign countries.