6th Vande Bharat Train to be launched on Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad Railway route

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): After the launch of the 5th Vande Bharat Express train on Chennai - Mysuru Railway route on 11th November 2022 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian Railways is all set to launch its 6th such train next month on Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad route of South Central Railway (SCR). However, the date of launch not yet announced by the Ministry of Railways. This train would likely be run on this route in the daytime on the lines of Janma Bhoomi Express.

The Vande Bharat express would cover the total distance of about 660-km from Visakhapatnam to Secunderabad in 8 hours as against the 12 to 14 hours of present express trains.

Presently, only an 18-km stretch from Visakhapatnam to Duvvada would be in East Coast Railway’s jurisdiction. Once the new zone commences operations, then the Vande Bharat Express would run in 500 km in the South Coast Railway zone’s jurisdiction, sources said.

"The Vande Bharat Express would be on Vizag's tracks this year. The staff of the division has already gone under the necessary training to operate the train," said Anup Kumar Satpaty, Waltair Division Railway Manager.

"The trials of the train would be conducted very soon. One or two days of trials are enough to examine the railway tracks to run the train. If the train were run to Vijayawada it would take four hours and the return journey would also be the same," he added.

The Vande Bharat Express is a fully AC train, having 16 coaches with a capacity of around 1,128 seats. The new Vande Bharat trains can reach a speed of 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in just 52 seconds, with a top speed of up to 180 kmph. The version 2.0 trains weigh around 392 tonnes, 38 tonnes lighter than the previous versions.

The DRM said that they would get a clear picture of the destination based on the availability of rakes. Initially, railways would run from Vizag to Vijayawada and later extended to Secunderabad, he confirmed.

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.

Some salient features of Vande Bharat Express Train

• The Vande Bharat Express train has an intelligent braking system that enables better acceleration and deceleration.
• All coaches are equipped with automatic doors; GPS-based audio-visual passenger information system, onboard hotspot Wi-Fi for entertainment purposes, and very comfortable seating. The executive class also has rotating chairs.
• All toilets are bio-vacuum type. The lighting is dual mode, viz. diffused for general illumination and personal for every seat.
• Every coach has a pantry with facilities to serve hot meals and hot and cold beverages.
• The Vande Bharat Express has 16 air-conditioned coaches of which two are executive class coaches. The total seating capacity is 1,128 passengers.
• It also has provision for Divyang-friendly facilities.
• Adding up the green footprints, the train has a regenerative braking system in the Vande Bharat Express coaches which can save up to 30% of electrical energy.
• The Vande Bharat Express train has fully sealed gangways and censored interconnecting doors for a dust-free environment.

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.

Vande Bharat Express Trains - At A Glance