Vande Bharat trains to get sleeper coaches soon, railways announces expected launch time
According to Indian Railways, soon passengers can travel on Vande Bharat trains by laying down on their seats as sleeper coaches will be added to the semi-high speed trains.
Vande Bharat trains: The journey on the country's most modern train - Vande Bharat - is now going to be more comfortable. Till now you have been traveling sitting in Vande Bharat but sitting for 8 to 10 hours is not easy for everyone. Keeping this in mind, Indian Railways took a big decision. Now soon you will be able to travel comfortably by lying down in Vande Bharat series trains. For this, Railways is preparing to add sleeper coaches to the train of this category. The manufacturing of Vande Bharat trains with these sleepers will start from June 2025. It is believed that trains with sleeper coaches will be back on track by the end of 2025 or in 2026.
Commercial production of Vande Bharat sleeper coach-fitted trains will commence from June, 2025 at the Uttarpara plant of Titagarh Rail Systems Limited (TRSL).
A senior official of TRSL said the tie-up set up with public sector undertaking BHEL has been entrusted by the Railways to manufacture 80 sets of Vande Bharat sleeper trains. This sleeper train of Vande Bharat will be different from the Vande Bharat train currently in operation. In this, instead of sitting seats, seats suitable for sleeping passengers will be installed.
Rs 24,000 crores project
Manufacturing of 50-55 per cent of the spare parts of these trains will be carried out in Bengal's plant. Titagarh Rail Systems Ltd's (TRSL) Uttarpara plant holds 52 per cent stake in the tie-up with the government. The company's vice-chairman and managing director Umesh Chowdhary said the total value of the contract awarded to the alliance by the Railways is Rs 24,000 crore, of which TRSL's share is around Rs 12,716 crore. He said that this contract would be completed within six years.
Chowdhary said, “The commercial production of Vande Bharat sleeper train will start from June, 2025 and for this, necessary infrastructure work has been started at Uttarpara plant. A separate arrangement of Rs 650 crore has been made for this. He said that the first prototype of Vande Bharat sleeper train will be prepared within two years. The first eight trains will be completely built at the Uttarpara plant while the remaining trains will be assembled at the railway's Chennai plant.
887 passengers will be able to travel
The Vande Bharat sleeper train will be made in such a way that it can run at a maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour. 16 coaches will be added to it, in which a total of 887 passengers will be able to travel together. Chaudhary said the supply of 120 Vande Bharat sleeper trains is going to be done by another tie-up which includes Rail Vikas Nigam Limited and Russian company TMH.
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