Indian Railways set to roll out 44 improved Vande Bharat trains; 5 cool facts about the new 160 kmph trains

Indian Railways all set to roll out 44 new improved ‘Make in India’ Vande Bharat Express trains! In a move that will transform passenger experience on the Indian Railways network, Piyush Goyal-led Railway Ministry has given its nod for the production of 44 more Vande Bharat Express trains. The self-propelled engine-less train sets, introduced earlier this year, mark a technological shift for Indian Railways and offer world-class comfort to passengers. Learning from the experience of the first two Vande Bharat train sets, the 44 new train sets will have even more advanced features based on RDSO’s specifications.

Recently, the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai has published the tender for supply of electrical equipment and other items for as many as 44 Vande Bharat Express trainsets of 16 coaches each. All coaches will be Chair Car type for day travel, equipped with automatic plug doors with retractable footsteps, automatic intercommunication door, speakers, side destination boards, mobile and laptop charging sockets in the passenger seats, CCTV cameras, emergency talk back units with networking system. The new Vande Bharat coaches will boast of features such as diffused lighting for luggage racks, mini pantry with modular equipement, continuous LED lights and GPS antenna.

New Vande Bharat Express train sets: 5 special features

• The trainsets will be of light weight and energy efficient. They will support a ride index of less than 3.5 against the earlier value of less than 4. This feature will improve passenger comfort even for longer train journeys. Moreover, they will be suitable for operations in Jammu and Kashmir.
• A residual acceleration value of 0.1 ms2 will allow the trainset to reach the top speed of 160 km per hour in maximum 140 seconds. With this, around 20% journey time will be saved and they will also be suitable for flooding conditions.
• The interior of these trainsets will have improved fire safety as per EN 45545 HL2 and improved electrical protection. Also, they will boast a well-defined protection scheme for High Voltage roof cable as well as automatic fire detection and alarm.
• The trainsets will be equipped with light weight, explosion-proof lithium-iron-phosphate batteries to provide back up for duration of up to three hours. Also, they will have state-of-the-art aluminium body roof mounted packaged unit type AC units with thermal comfort based Microprocessor controller. The new trainset’s propulsion system will have a peak efficiency of at least 87 per cent. With this, Indian Railways is aiming for efficient, robust and reliable systems in the Vande Bharat trains.
• The new trainsets will have basic units with four coaches. These can be attached or detached from the train, as the need arises. With this feature, it will be possible to replace the basic units in case of defects, or augment the train length up to 24 coaches in case the demand increases. This is a key learning from the existing Vande Bharat train sets which do not have this feature. As a result, the entire trainset becomes ineffective in case of any defect in a coach.

Source: Financial Express