75 Vande Bharat trains to start by August 15… but the railway is looking away from the target

Indian Railways has been tasked to start 75 Vande Bharat Express trains by August 15 this year, but it is far from its target. In recent times, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has flagged off several Vande Bharat trains, but still the Railways seems to be far from its target of 75 figures.

To attract passengers, the Railways is starting more and more Vande Bharat trains with fewer coaches, while the number of coaches should be 16. Presently Vande Bharat trains are being started with 8 coaches, which is increasing its number but is not meeting its standards.

Also, instead of 160 kmph speed, the train is planned to operate at 64 kmph. Starting on Thursday (May 25, 2023), Vande Bharat will run from Dehradun in Uttarakhand to Delhi at an average speed of 64 kmph. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off this train today. There are 8 coaches in this train. Next week, another eight-coach Vande Bharat train will be flagged off between Guwahati and New Jalpaiguri, bringing Northeast into the Vande Bharat route map.

The first Vande Bharat train was launched in the year 2019, with tender conditions, industry consultations as well as its own housekeeping issues stalling the production of trainsets from 2021 onwards. In The Indian Express’ Express Adda program, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav had said last week that the pace of production of trains would increase. “Soon we will be able to run one train every three days,” he added.

The average speed of each of the 18 trains shows that the tracks with innumerable technical speed restrictions have semi-high-speed trainsets for actual speeds similar to existing superfast trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi. They are mostly allowed to run at a maximum speed of 130 kmph. “Removal of permanent speed restrictions (on tracks) is an ongoing process in which the DRM and GM are engaged,” a railway spokesperson said on Wednesday.