Vande Bharat Sleeper from next month; Railways announces 1000km opening route

NEW DELHI: India’s much-awaited Vande Bharat sleeper trains will start service from next month. The Railways announced that the first train will start service by the end of December or the beginning of January. While the Vande Bharat chair cars operate during the day, the sleeper trains will operate at night. The first Vande Bharat sleeper will run from the national capital, New Delhi, to Patna in Bihar. The journey will be covered in eight hours.

Public sector undertaking (BEML) has handed over two trains with 16 coaches to Indian Railways. The Vande Bharat sleeper service will run six days a week. The decision has been made to skip one day of Vande Bharat's chair car model for maintenance and cleaning. The railways promise passengers a royal journey, as the sleeper will have state-of-the-art facilities.

For cities located 800 km apart, the sleeper editions will be used for long-distance overnight journeys. Similarly, native culinary specials will be served on the train. The Railways has also decided to allocate Rs 14,000 crore for infrastructure development and modernisation of trains.

Meanwhile, there are indications that Kerala will also be allowed to run Vande Bharat sleeper trains in the next phase. Earlier reports had revealed that the railways were considering the Thiruvananthapuram-Mangalore and Thiruvananthapuram-Bengaluru routes.