Seven firms bag order for 58 new Vande Bharat Semi High Speed Trains

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): The national transporter of India, Indian Railways has finally awarded contract to seven Rolling Stock manufacturers for development of 58 new semi high-speed Vande Bharat trains. The companies name includes Medha Servo Drives, Alstom, Siemens, BHEL, Titagarh Wagons and CGL

Medha Servo will manufacture 26 such trains, Alstom and Siemens will manufacture 16 and 9 trains respectively. The state run BHEL has also got the order for manufacturing of another 4 trains. The companies that have got developmental orders include Titagarh Wagons and CGL.

“First, we have high domestic demand and second we can become a big player in exporting these trains to other countries as our cost of production is almost one-third as compared to any other country.For that, we need to go for capacity building and hence the companies that have got the developmental order will also emerge as potential players in the near future,” said an official, ET reported.

The Govt. of India has a mega plan to introduce more semi high-speed Vande Bharat trains on major inter-city routes and also on capital connectivity corridors. The future Vande Bharat trains will have sleeper facility for overnight journeys.

At present, only two Vande Bharat Express trains are operational and 44 are being manufactured at ICF, Chennai. In her budget speech, Union finance minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the roll out of 400 new semi high-speed Vande Bharat trains in the next three years.

Expert says that one Vande Bharat Express train will cost arround Rs 130 crores.