Around 250 sleeper coaches of Vande Bharat on tracks in next five years, will Kerala benefit?

CHENNAI: Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that around 250 sleeper coaches of the Vande Bharat Express will be on the tracks in the next five years. The minister made this clear while talking about the trial run of the sleeper coaches. The union minister informed that by 2029, about 250 Vande Bharat sleeper services will be operated in the country.

The union minister said the trial run of Vande Bharat sleeper trains will be there in the next two months and if it is successful, will operate service within six months. Running on self-propelled technology, Vande Bharat sleeper class trains offer better features than Rajdhani Express trains.

A person can travel in Vande Bharat Express only by sitting. However, Vande Bharat is aiming sleeper coaches for long distance travel. The Vande Bharat Sleeper will be a semi-high-speed train with a speed of 160 kmph with better features than the Rajdhani Express train. A test run of up to 180 km will be conducted. The first prototype built by BEML has a total of 16 coaches. It includes 11 AC 3 tier coaches, 4 AC 2 tier coaches and one First AC coach.

Vande Bharat sleeper train passengers can expect better comfort in berths with extra cushioning, surpassing the standard of Rajdhani Express trains. The sides of each berth will be well cushioned to ensure a comfortable ride. There will also be specially designed ladders for easy access to the top and middle berths.

Sensor based lighting, strips in corridors to see way at night. Automatic doors like in Vande Bharat. Separate toilet for differently abled. Semipermanent couplers between coaches to reduce vibration. The coaches feature sealed gangways to facilitate movement within the coaches.

Will passengers in Kerala benefit?
Long-distance travelers are hoping to get as many Vande Bharat sleeper coaches as possible for Kerala as passengers have taken over the two trains operating in the state. If Vande Bharat sleeper coaches are operated on the Thiruvananthapuram-Mangalore route, the travel woes experienced on this route can be solved at least in a small way.
Tickets were on the waiting list for the first two weeks of Vande Bharat service in Kerala. So, passengers are hoping to get more sleeper coaches. The two Vande Bharat Expresses that operate from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod and Mangalore are a huge hit.

Among the Vande Bharat services operating in the country, Kerala is leading in terms of occupancy and number of passengers. About 200 passengers use every 100 boarding and alighting seats. Kerala is the only service where the occupancy has reached close to 200 %. Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the first Vande Bharat Express service in Kerala in September 2023.