Railways plans to roll out Vande Metro, trials to begin in July

Four coaches will constitute one unit and a minimum of 12 coaches will make one Vande Metro.

After a huge success of semi-high speed Vande Bharat trains, the Indian Railways is planning to launch the first Vande Metro to transform the intra-city transportation system, a senior official closely associated with the project told news agency PTI.

"All preparations are going on to start its trial run from July 2024 so that its services can be offered to people as soon as possible," the official said.

Vande Metro will have several new features keeping in mind the travel needs of the city dwellers. It will be based on the latest technology to acquire high acceleration and deceleration which will help it cover more stoppages in less time.

"We have set a target to roll them out this year. Its testing will start in another couple of months. Besides having automatic doors and high comfort quotient, it will have many such features which are not available in currently running metro trains," the official said, adding the details of its additional features along with pictures will be shared for people very soon.

As per the PTI report quoting Railways sources, it will have a unique coach configuration. Four coaches will constitute one unit and a minimum of 12 coaches will make one Vande Metro.

For starters, the Railways will launch a minimum of 12 Vande Metro coaches and will increase coaches up to 16 as per the demand on the route, the report added.

"Initially, we will have a 12-coach metro but it can be extended to 16 coaches depending on the demand and need of the city," the official said. He further added that the city which will have the first Vande Metro is being worked out.