Vande Bharat Express: Indian Railways spells out manufacturing plan

Assuaging concerns over the delay in the rollout of the 44 Vande Bharat trains, the Railways has said the trains will be simultaneously manufactured in three rail units — Railway Coach Factory, Kapurthala, Modern Coach Factory, Rae Bareilly and Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai.

"A decision was taken some months back that the three manufacturing units of the Railways will manufacture these trains, thereby reducing the time taken to roll them out by one-third. The 44 trains will start running in the next two to three years. Once the tender is finalised, a definite timeline will be made available," Railway Board Chairman Yadav said.

ICF, which manufactured the first two Vande Bharat trains, had earlier informed the Railway Board that it would take 28 months to introduce the prototype rakes into commercial service and an additional six months to start the series production, and subsequently 78 months to complete the manufacture of 44 trains.

Yadav, however, said these were internal exchanges within the Railways and since the three units are going to manufacture the rakes, the rollout would be faster.