The railways expects to cumulatively run the 75 new Vande Bharat trains for 10 to 12 lakh kilometres earlier than aggressively pursuing the export markets.
| Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR Ok
The Ministry of Railways is readying a roadmap to begin export of the indigenously manufactured Vande Bharat trains by 2025-26, a senior railways official mentioned on Friday.
The Ministry can also be working to enhance manufacturing of those trains in addition to introduce newer variations with sleeper coaches.
“The ecosystem to export trains have to be created over the next two to three years. We are on track to manufacture 475 Vande Bharat trains in the next three years and once they run successfully on our tracks … we will have proof of technology. There will be confidence in global markets about our product. The Vande Bharat trains meet all international standards,” the official mentioned.
The railways expects to cumulatively run the 75 new Vande Bharat trains for 10 to 12 lakh kilometres earlier than aggressively pursuing the export markets.
It can also be constructing ‘standard gauge’ tracks, that are used exterior India, in Rajasthan to check the trains which might be exported, as trains in India run on broad-gauge tracks. The tracks are anticipated to be prepared by January 2024.
The sleeper model of the Vande Bharat trains might be prepared by the primary quarter of (January-March) 2024 and might be manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, the official mentioned.
Tilting trains
Further, the railways, in affiliation with international companies, is working to develop ‘tilting trains’ — which may run on curved tracks with out slowing down — in India by 2025-26. At least 100 of the 400 Vande Bharat trains to be manufactured by 2025 will use this know-how.
“We will have tilting trains in the country. We will tie up with a technology partner for this. We will have this technology in 100 Vande Bharat trains over the next two or three years,” the official mentioned, including that such trains are actually operational in 11 international locations — Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic, the UK, Switzerland, China, Germany and Romania.