Vande Bharat sleeper trains soon; work on at Chennai ICF, says report

Indian Railways is set to roll out the first batch of the sleeper version of Vande Bharat trains in March next year.

Quoting Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, an Economic Times report said the Chennai-based Integral Coach Factory (ICF) will ready the design for the sleeper variant of Vande Bharat trains by December-end.

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The Railways plans to induct 22 sleeper Vande Bharat trains next year.

The first Vande Bharat Express train was launched on February 15, 2019 between New Delhi and Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In their present avatar, the 16-coach chair car Vande Bharat Express trains travel short distances in day time, like the Shatabdi Express, with a seating capacity of 1,128 passengers per coach. With the launch of the sleeper variant, these trains will run overnight, covering longer distances

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With the launch of the two Vande Bharat Express trains between Guwahati and New Jalpaiguri on May 29 and Delhi (Anand Vihar) and Dehradun on May 25, the premium trains in their present version are now running on 18 routes. These routes are:

New Delhi–Varanasi, New Delhi–Katra, Gandhinagar–Mumbai, New Delhi–Amb Andaura, Chennai–Mysuru, Nagpur–Bilaspur, Secunderabad–Visakhapatnam, Mumbai–Solapur, Mumbai–Shirdi, Hazrat Nizamuddin–Bhopal, Secunderabad–Tirupati, Chennai–Coimbatore, Ajmer–Delhi Cantt, Thiruvananthapuram–Kasargod, Puri–Howrah, Dehradun–Delhi (Anand Vihar) and Guwahati–New Jalpaiguri

The Railways is planning to launch five more Vande Bharat trains on June 26 simultaneously on Mumbai-Goa, Bengaluru–Hubballi–Dharwad, Patna–Ranchi, Bhopal–Indore and Bhopal–Jabalpur routes.

Vande Bharat trains are fast catching up with passengers in popularity. For instance, as many as 44,992 passengers travelled by the Secunderabad–Tirupati–Secunderabad Vande Bharat Express till May 13 since its launch on April 8 this year. Encouraged by the tremendous response from passengers, the South Central Railway is doubling up the number of coaches from the initial 8 to increase the capacity to 1128 passengers, while reducing the travel time by 15 minutes.

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According to the Central Railway officials, more than one lakh passengers travelled by Mumbai–Solapur and Mumbai–Sainagar Shirdi Vande Bharat Express trains in 32 days after their inaugural run.

The Indian Railways has an ambitious plan of running 75 Vande Bharat trains by 2023-end.