New Delhi: BG Mallya, the General Manager of Integral Coach Factory (ICF) has announced that Indian Railways will roll out the sleeper version of the superfast Vande Bharat train, as early as in March next year. With that, the Railways is all set to launch the first of it’s kind the Vande Metro by January 2024.
The ICF General Manager was quoted in a media report saying, ‘Sleeper coach of Vande Bharat will be rolled out in the current financial year where the first train is under production and will be rolled out in March 2024’.
Whereas, the work on the new affordable Vande Metro is also underway. Reportedly the train, will consist of 12 coaches. It will be used only for covering short distances.
India’s Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) and the TMH Group of Russia are manufacturing the sleeper version of the Vande Bharat train. A total of 200 sleeper Vande Bharat trains are in manufacturing stage. Around 120 of them is being manufactured by the Russia’s TMH group, whereas the remaining 80 is being manufactured by a consortium of Titagarh Wagons and BHEL.
These sleeper trains will consist of 16 bogies in which 11 will be the 3 tier AC coaches, 4 AC 2 coaches and just one AC I coach. It is specially designed to cover 160 km per hour.
The first ever Vande Bharat Express was flagged off on 15th February 2019 between New Delhi and Varanasi. Prime Minister Modi flagged off the train from the New Delhi Railway Station.