 "Vande Bharat")
The Ministry of Railways, which has been working on the inter-city version of the Vande Bharat – VB Metro, is likely to start trial runs in July, according to senior government officials aware of the matter.
“Vande Metro trains are oriented towards high acceleration with frequent stoppages. These trains will have 12 coaches each, large automatic doors with side seats,” said government officials.
It will come with several configurations such as a four-coach option, eight-coach, and so forth in multiples of four. The official said that on the highest-density routes, the Vande Metro can be extended to 16 coaches.
“These will be for unreserved or general category passengers who prefer using the trains for daily commute,” the official said.
The Vande Metro trains will eventually ply between 100-250 kms distances connecting 124 cities across the country. The routes identified so far include Lucknow-Kanpur, Agra-Mathura, and Tirupati-Chennai, among others.
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The Vande Metro was first announced by the Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw in 2022-23 as part of the Centre’s plan for railway modernisation.
One of the concerns shared earlier by experts was that the Vande Metro may not achieve its goals as it runs on the same saturated track infrastructure of the railways, as compared to metro trains and regional rapid transit system (RRTS), which have dedicated track networks.
Train operations will be managed keeping in view the special nature of Vande Metro trains, and plans are in place to seamlessly integrate these short-distance trains into the railway schedule.
This is in addition to the other tenets of the rail modernisation plan of the Centre – Vande Bharat chair car for intermediate distances, Vande Bharat sleeper for premium long-distance travel, and Amrit Bharat trains for general and sleeper class long-distance transit.
Official sources say Vande Bharat sleeper trains will be launched within the first 100 days of the election results. The sleeper version is being developed by central government-owned Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) in Bengaluru.
Currently, Vande Bharat trains are running solely with a seating facility, which limits their ability to undertake long-distance journeys.
The Centre is also looking to switch its locomotive production plans to ensure that the push-pull version – consisting of two 6000 HP locomotives at the front and back – is prioritised in production.
The push-pull locomotive is used in Amrit Bharat trains, to ensure faster and safer operations even for mass transit, where there are no closed-off, air conditioned coaches.
Railway production units, in the coming years, would be capable of producing 1,000 such coupled locomotives at full capacity. Business Standard reported last month that the Centre has included the production of 50 Amrit Bharat trains in its manufacturing plans for FY25.
