Railway Minister shares pictures of Vande-Bharat sleeper version concept
The sleeper version of Vande Bharat train can be seen running on the tracks in the country by March next year. Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav shared 7 pictures of the concept of this train on social media on October 3. Also wrote in the caption – Sleeper version of Vande Bharat is coming soon… in early 2024.
The AC-two and AC-three tier coaches with world class features will also have roof lighting and a 5-step ladder to climb into the berth.
Currently, Vande Bharat with chair car facility is running in the country. Railways now plans to run Vande Bharat train on the route of Rajdhani Express. In such a situation, it is necessary to provide sleeper coaches to provide rest to the passengers at night.
Chennai-based Integral Coach Factory (ICF) General Manager BG Mallya had said on Saturday, September 16 that the sleeper version of Vande will be launched during this financial year i.e. 2023-24. Also, Vande Metro can also be launched in this financial year.
Mallya said that the sleeper Vande Bharat train is currently being built and it will be launched in March 2024. Along with this, production of Vande Metro is also going on. This train of 12 coaches can be run on shorter routes from January.
Concept train – Vande Bharat (sleeper version)
Coming soon… early 2024 pic.twitter.com/OPuGzB4pAk
— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) October 3, 2023
Vande Bharat non AC train will be launched in October
Mallya said that there is a plan to launch a non-AC train version of Vande Bharat also. It will be launched before October 31 this year. This will be a non-AC push-pull train, which will have 22 coaches and one locomotive on either side.
The speed of Vande Bharat sleeper train will be 160 km per hour
Sleeper Vande Bharat is being built by a consortium i.e. two companies together. This includes Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) and Russia’s TMH Group. This consortium had made the lowest bid to run 120 sleeper Vande Bharat out of 200. The remaining 80 trains will be supplied by the consortium of Titagarh Wagons and BHEL.
RVNL GM (Mechanical) Alok Kumar Mishra had said in August that the speed of Vande Bharat sleeper train would be 160 kmph. It will have 16 coaches, including 11 AC3, four AC2 and one AC1 coach. He said that the number of coaches can be increased to 20 or 24.
The first Vande Bharat train was launched on 15 February 2019
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the launch of 75 Vande Bharat Express in his speech from the Red Fort on August 15, 2018. The first Vande Bharat train started running on 15 February 2019. So far 25 Vande Bharat trains have been run.
