New Delhi: Announcing the Budget 2022-23 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the country will manufacture 400 new, energy-efficient Vande Bharat trains in the next three years.
Apart from eyeing on farmers, the rail sector will also develop “One Station One Product”, which will leverage local produce carried on the railways, she said. Bringing out new products, Railways will also roll out postal railways for carriage of parcels, giving a thrust to a new business area.
This announcement of Vande Bharat Trains is highlight of the budget. It is part of a larger, multimodal plan for infrastructure development under PM Gati Shakti, is the new Vande Bharat trains.
These new 400 trains are going to be made of light-weight aluminium, as opposed to steel, marking a departure from India’s traditional choice of metal for making its coaches, railway sources said.
Each trainset is around 50 tonnes lighter in weight, and consumes much less energy than their counterparts made of steel.
Costing
The cost of each trainset is around Rs 25 crore more than current trainsets, which cost around Rs 106 crore per set of 16 coaches.
The Indian Express Sources said that by factoring in inflation and other associated costs of the current steel-made Vande Bharat sets, the aluminium ones come out to be marginally higher, whereas the money saved by way of less energy consumed is much higher, translating into a higher revenue potential for Railways.
The rolling stock programmes may witness projects worth over Rs 1 lakh crore spread over the next few years including manufacturing of the new Vande Bharat trainsets, new high-performance freight locomotives and other products.
KAVACH
Safety matters. Hence, for safety, the indigenous anti-collision system, called Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) now reschristened as “Kavach”. This has been there in the various stages of use over the past several years, will cover 2000 km of rail network.
Railways have already started the process to make an installment of 44 Vande Bharat trains, in order to have Vande Bharat trains running on at least 75 routes by August 15, 2023.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
