Will Kerala get bumper from Railway? Nine Vande Bharat sleeper trains in the pipeline

NEW DELHI: With the successful completion of long-distance trial runs, more Vande Bharat sleeper trains are set to be introduced across the country. Around nine premium trains are being prepared in this category. The Vande Bharat sleeper trains will be manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, with production expected to be completed by December this year. Each train will have 16 coaches.

In addition to these, Indian Railways is also planning to introduce Vande Bharat sleeper trains with 24 coaches. An order has already been placed for the propulsion system that will power these trains. On December 17 last year, an order was placed for 50 rakes of the 24-coach Vande Bharat sleeper trains. These will be supplied by Hyderabad-based Medha and Alstom, with Medha providing 33 rakes and Alstom supplying 17 rakes within two years. The full-scale production of the 24-coach Vande Bharat sleeper trains will take place between 2026 and 2027.

Before entering service, the trains will undergo trial runs conducted by the Research Designs and Standards Organization (RDSO), the research wing of Indian Railways, which will issue the final certification. The Railway Safety Commissioner will conduct inspections while the trains run at maximum speed. The first 16-coach Vande Bharat sleeper train underwent RDSO trial runs on January 15. The trial covered a distance of 540 kilometres on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad section. Additionally, a high-speed test was conducted in Kota, where the train was run at a speed of 180 km/h.

The Vande Bharat sleeper train can accommodate 1,128 passengers across three classes: First-Class AC, AC 2-Tier, and AC 3-Tier. Safety features include crash buffers and fire barrier walls. Indian Railways has also entered into two key contracts for the production of these trains. In June 2023, a consortium of Titagarh Rail Systems Limited and BHEL secured a contract to manufacture 80 Vande Bharat sleeper trains at a cost of ₹24,000 crore. Another agreement was signed with Kinet Railway Solutions, an India-Russia joint venture, on September 27, 2023, for the production of additional Vande Bharat sleeper trains.

There were earlier indications that the second rake of these trains would be allocated to Southern Railway. There is also a demand to introduce Vande Bharat sleeper trains on routes such as Thiruvananthapuram-Mangaluru and Hyderabad-Chennai.