India is working on Vande Bharat 4.0 and Amrit Bharat 4.0, the next generation of high-speed trains with a focus on the export market, railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on October 15.
The government is also planning to develop dedicated passenger train corridors and also increase the capacity of existing tracks, the minister said at the inaugural session of the International Railway Equipment Exhibition in New Delhi.
Most of these passenger corridors will have a designed speed of 350 kmph, with an operating speed of 320 kmph, he said.
"Right now we are running version 3.0 of Vande Bharat which is a significant improvement over its previous version. But now we are reimagining our Vande Bharat service to develop a totally new technology which would benchmark us against all parameters with the best in the world,” the minister said.
Vaishnaw said Vande Bharat 4.0 is expected to launch in 18 months, with quality high enough to attract international export demand.
“Right now our Vande Bharat trains are top notch in technical parameters. But Vande Bharat 4.0 will need to have even better toilets, seats and the workmanship of the coaches has to come to a totally new level," Vaishnaw said.
India is running version 2.0 of Amrit Bharat trains which work on the "push-pull" technology that involves a locomotive at both the front and rear of the train.
"We will be going for push-pull technology for all long distance trains covering about 2,500-3,000 kms,” he said.
Amrit Bharat 3.0 trains are under development, “but still we are using old locomotives in them which are one generation behind. In Amrit Bharat 4.0, we will have new generation coaches as well as passenger locomotives", he said.
In 36 months, new generation passenger locomotives should be designed and out on the tracks for testing.
The minister also talked about expanding the scope of automated train protection system - Kavach.
"We must ensure that in the next four-five years, a substantial part of the railway network should be covered by Kavach,” he said.
Right now it is designed for 180 kmph and tested at 160 kmph. The government will continue to roll out Kavach 4.0 over the next four-five years while simultaneously developing Kavach 5.0. The new safety system will be designed speeds of up to 280 kmph and will eventually become the standard system for all the passenger corridors, he said.
As part of India's Viksit Bharat vision, the railways aims to build a high-speed network of 7,000 km by 2047.
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