New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): After the launch of the 4th Vande Bharat Express train from Delhi to Una on 13th October 2022, Indian Railways is all set to launch its 5th such train next month on 10th November on Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysuru route of South Railway.
The Vande Bharat Express trains (previously known as Train 18) have been introduced to upgrade maintenance technologies and methodologies and achieve improvement in productivity and performance of all Railway assets and manpower in which inter-alia would cover reliability, availability, utilization and efficiency.
These trains are equipped with world-class passenger amenities. It can achieve high speeds due to faster acceleration and deceleration and will reduce journey time by 25% to 45%.
In the union budget 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that 400 new-generation Vande Bharat Express Trains with better energy efficiency will be developed and manufactured during the next three years.
The manufacturing of first prototype of 'Train 18' was completed in October 2018. It was planned to replace the then-existing 30-year-old Shatabdi Express, which takes 15% longer time to complete the same journey. Since it took 18 months to be manufactured, it was renamed to 'Train 18'.During test runs, the train achieved an operational speed of 180 kmph, making it the fastest train to ever run in India.
First Vande Bharat Express Train (22435/22436) which runs between New Delhi and Varanasi (Northern Railway) was launched on 15th February 2019 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After success of first train, the Second Vande Bharat Express Train (22439/22440) was launched between New Delhi and Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra (Northern Railway) on 3rd October 2019.
The first and second train were initially developed as Version 1.0 (first generation) by the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai under the leadership of Sudhanshu Mani (then General Manager - ICF). He is the main innovator of engineless semi high speed trains in form of Train 18 (now Vande Bharat Express Train).
The Third Vande Bharat Express Train (20901/20902) was launched between Mumbai Central and Gandhinagar Capital (Western Railway) on 30th September 2022. And the fourth Vande Bharat Express Train (22448/22447) was launched between New Delhi and Amb Andaura (Northern Railway) on 13th October 2022.
The third and fourth Vande Bharat Express Trains have been developed a Version 2.0 (second generation) by the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai. These trains have some advanced features over the first generation trains.
Train No | Terminals | Distance | Division | Inauguration |
1st (22435/22436) | New Delhi - Varanasi | 759 km | NR | 15 Feb, 2019 |
2nd (22439/22440) | New Delhi - Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra | 655 km | NR | 3 Oct, 2019 |
3rd (20901/20902) | Mumbai Central - Gandhinagar Capital | 522 km | WR | 30 Sep, 2022 |
4th (22448/22447) | New Delhi - Amb Andaura | 412 km | NR | 13 Oct, 2022 |
5th (TBA) | Chennai - Mysuru | 498 km | SR | 10 Nov, 2022 |