Indian Railways plans to manufacture 75 Vande Bharat Chair Car trains and 400 new generation Vande Bharat Trains

Indian Railways plans to manufacture 75 Vande Bharat Chair Car trains to connect different parts of the country (till date 10 pairs of Vande Bharat trains are operational on the Indian Railways network).

More Details:

  • These Vande Bharat services have ultra-modern features like faster acceleration, better ride comfort, on board infotainment and Global Positioning System (GPS) based passenger information system, automatic doors, retractable footsteps and Zero discharge vacuum bio toilets etc.
  • Vande Bharat Express services aim at providing faster and better travel experience to the passengers. Presently, the following 10 pairs of Vande Bharat train services are operational on the Indian Railways’ network:
    • 22435/22436 Varanasi- New Delhi Express
    • 22439/22440 New Delhi – Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra Express
    • 20901/20902 Mumbai Central – Gandhinagar Capital Express
    • 22447/22448 New Delhi – Amb Andaura Express
    • 20607/20608 MGR Chennai – Mysuru Express
    • 20825/20826 Bilaspur – Nagpur Express
    • 22301/22302 Howrah – New Jalpaiguri Express
    • 20833/20834 Visakhapatnam – Secunderabad Express
    • 22223/22224 CSMT – Sainagar Shirdi Express
    • 22225/22226 Solapur – CSMT Express
  • The Point-to-Point fare of Vande Bharat Express is calculated based on the basic fare table notified for Vande Bharat trains. Other charges like reservation fee, superfast surcharge, catering charge and Goods and Services tax etc as applicable are levied separately.
  • Basic fare of Vande Bharat Express in AC chair car is 1.4 times of the basic fare of AC chair car of Shatabdi train and in Executive class is 1.3 times of basic fare of executive class of Shatabdi train services.
  • Indian Railways have planned to manufacture 75 Vande-Bharat Chair Car Trains to connect different parts of the country. Further, in the Budget 2022-2023, an announcement has been made regarding development and manufacture of four hundred new-generation Vande Bharat Trains, with better energy efficiency and passenger riding experience, during the next three years.
  • A tender has been opened on 30.11.2022 for manufacture of 200 Vande Bharat trains at an estimated cost of ₹26,000 Crore for the supply portion. This tender is under evaluation.
  • This information was given by the Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronic & Information Technology, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

Source: PIB- Press Release | Image Credit (representational): South Central Railway