The Indian Railways excitedly emphasized the introduction of 400 semi-high speed next-generation Vande Bharat Express trains in three years. According to Budget documents, Rs 41,000 crore is what would cost the Indian Railways for introducing more and better Vande Bharat Express trains in the future. In this Budget, the Railways have allocated Rs 2,000 as a token for this particular project.
According to railway officials, this will create a business opportunity worth Rs 41,000 crore and create nearly 15,000 jobs. As per the Pink Book for 2022-23, the Indian Railways have proposed an outlay of Rs 100 crore as Capital cost and another Rs 1,900 crore as Extra Budgetary Resources (EBR) for conversion of existing 100 Vande Bharat trains to energy-efficient Vande Bharat trains at cost of Rs 20 crore per rake.
On February 1, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had stated that the Indian Railways will focus on getting 400 new-generation Vande Bharat Express trains earlier called ‘Train-18’ launched way back in 2019; which will run at speeds of 180-200 kmph. The Budget has made provision of Rs 1,000 as a token amount for these 100 rakes.
Vaishnaw had termed this as Version-2 of Vande Bharat Express trains, which will see heavy capital investment. The Indian Railways will manufacture and/or acquire 300 rakes of new generation or Version-2 of energy-efficient Vande Bharat Express trains at a cost of around Rs 130 crore per rake.
It is proposed to incur a Capital cost of Rs 9,000 crore and another Rs 30,000 crore as EBR; although an outlay of Rs 1,000 crore as a token amount has been provided in 2022-23.
The Indian Railways received a Capital Investment of Rs 1.37 lakh crore in the current Budget which will boost the implementation of several projects stuck due to lack of funds.
The railway officials said that Mumbai will benefit from these fast-moving trains as both Central Railway and Western Railway will get Vande Bharat trains that would run on different routes connecting it with various parts of the country.
At present, two trains of Version-1 of Vande Bharat are operational connecting Delhi with the northern part of the country.
Railway minister Vaishnaw had stated that the design of Version-2 of Vande Bharat Express is complete and by April they will start its testing. By August-September, they expect to start serial production at their manufacturing units. The railways are also working out on futuristic upgraded technology as well in later versions of Vande Bharat Express trains.
The Rail authorities claim that they would focus on all aspects of passenger safety, comfort, experience, reduction of noise levels and vibrations in these new trains.
The current Vande Bharat trains are looking at 95 per cent occupancy capacity on average.
