Vande Bharat trains in their short span have turned into an exemplar for development and will be pictured as the towering achievement for the ruling party in upcoming elections. Alas, it was not any politician nor any government that first came up with the idea of ingenious high-speed trains in India. The master brain was Sudhanshu Mani, a mechanical officer of the Indian Railways with a 38-year career.

He was working in the integrated coach factory in Chennai when the idea recurred often pushing Sudhanshu to give it a try. Sudhanshu envisioned a train that could run at 180km speed and would cost just half the price of imported high-speed trains. However, it was not easy for Sudhanshu to walk the talk as the ministry remained unsure about approving the idea. Sudhanshu thus decided to trudge to the offices of railway members for months remaining optimistic about a favorable response.

A change from the old quotidian way is rather viewed through a dubious lens in India. Such happened when Sudhanshu tabled the idea of a high-speed train which was hitherto just a mere dream of India. If gone awry, such a project can bludgeon the political prospects of the ruling party and the project should also ensure a positive outcome from commoners in India. So Sudhanshu’s master plan of high-speed trains albeit being meticulous was a perennial subject of scrutiny from officials and the government.

Normally, for metro train projects, train coaches are imported from foreign countries for a humungous amount. But for Vande Bharat trains, the government went for ingenious options and completed the construction in just 18 months. At the start, the high-speed trains were named ‘Train 18’. Further, into the business, the government smelled success for the project and went to rechristen it as 'Vande Bharat' considering the political mileage in the offing.

The first Vande Bharat was flagged off by PM Narendra Modi on February 19, 2019. The high-speed elite train traveled from New Delhi to Varanasi on its initial sojourn. And now, three years later, all states are requesting in chorus for Vande Bharat trains.

Vande Bharat always screamed of eliteness. The pompous of the high-quality travel assured was too much to afford for the million ordinaries in India. Minding the chasm existing between different classes of passengers in India, the central government has decided to introduce new Vande Bharat trains sans AC coach, which will ensure a feasible journey, much to the joy of ordinary people.

The first service of the ordinary Vande Bharat trains will start in October. As of now, talks circle about Kerala getting an Ernakulam-Guwahati Vande Bharat train from October. However, the ordinary service should happen between Kasargod and Thiruvananthapuram, which is indeed the busiest of all routes in Kerala and can ensure the easy return of money to coffers.