Vande Bharat sleeper coach, Vande Bharat metros to be launched soon: Railway Board Secretary

Both domestic and global players are bullish on the prospect of make in India in rail sector, with some companies now planning to ‘design and develop’ in India and aim for exports.

Vande Bharat sleeper trains and Vande Bharat metros would be launched soon, said Milind Deouskar, Secretary Railway Board, while addressing the inaugural session of the International Rail Conference themed ‘Innovation and Technology: Changing the Future of Railway’, organised by CII.

“Vande Bharat as an innovation has been deeply appreciated by our customers and with that experience, their aspirations have grown. Keeping that in view we are planning Vande Bharat sleepers, Vande Bharat metro trains, all of this to meet the through-put, speed and convenience-related expectations. Indian Railways is on a great journey of expansion,” said Deouskar.

“If all goes well, we will come out with a world-class unmatched travel experience with the first proto (of Vande Bharat sleeper train) within this financial year itself,” said Shantanu Roy, Chairman and Managing Director, BEML, adding that they are a partner to developing the first sleeper Vande Bharat trains with ICF (Integral Coach Factory, Chennai) and Railway board.

Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw early this month had shared images of the Concept train - Vande Bharat sleeper version on social media due for launch in 2024. Each Vande Bharat Express sleeper train will be designed to achieve speeds of 160 km per hour and have 16 bogies with an approximate capacity to accommodate 887 passengers.

Roy estimated that the total opportunity size for the rail and metro segment, including Vande Bharat trains and Metro Tenders of Mumbai, Chennai and Patna could be upwards of Rs 2 lakh crore in the next seven years.

Indian Railways has issued a production plan of 102 Vande Bharat Rakes (35 in 2022-2023 and 67 in 2023-2024) as per Indian Railways design within Indian Railways Production Units (Integral coach factory, Rail coach factory and Modern coach factory). A total of 75 Vande Bharat rakes are planned as chair car versions and the remaining are planned as sleeper versions.

Indian Railways has also planned to manufacture 400 Vande Bharat trains sleeper versions of three different technologies for which tenders have been floated to select technology partners for manufacturing within Indian Railways Production Units. In addition, 8,000 Vande Bharat coaches have also been proposed under Budget 2023-24.

Both domestic and global players are bullish on the prospect of making in India in the rail sector, with some companies now planning to ‘design and develop’ in India and aim for exports.

“We have invested heavily in our Indian facilities in the last 35 years and we would like to significantly expand that. And that means not only ‘manufacture and make in India, but also ‘design and develop’ in India. Over the last 10 years, we have used the talent here in our centres to develop digital products for the Indian market but for the whole worldwide market. We want to harness that power to export more and more” said Jonathan Paddison, Member, Board of Directors, Knorr-Bremse Asia Pacific (Holding) Ltd.

Indian Railways’ focus on the completion and commissioning of a dedicated freight corridor for de-bottlenecking of congested routes; the launch of semi-high-speed trains — the world-class Vande Bharat trains, expansion of railway tracks and upgradation of railway stations was commended by Dipankar Ghosh, Chairman, CII Railway Transport and Equipment Division.

He said the industry is proud of Indian Railway’s rapid progress on a 100 percent electrification and carbon neutral goal by 2030 and added that Make in India along with this government’s focus on execution is proving to be a game changer both for Indian Railways and the industry.