It was early winter of 2016, when Sudhanshu Mani, left with 25 months of service in the Indian Railways, decided to give shape to an idea that he had dreamt for decades. Mani, then general manager at Chennai-based Integral Coach Factory, got his team to begin work on Train 18 or Vande Bharat Express that started its commercial run a fortnight ago.
Despite scepticism from the bureaucratic set-up about an India-designed semi high-speed train, Mani stood his ground. He recalls, “Girte hain shahsawar hi maidaan-e-jung mein, woh tifl kya gire jo ghutno ke bal chale…’’(It is the warriors who fall