Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday unveiled the prototype version of the Vande Bharat sleeper coach here at the BEML's facility.
The Minister laid the foundation stone for a new Vande Bharat manufacturing facility on the Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) premises.
Vaishnaw also laid the foundation stone for a new Hangar facility spanning 9.2 acres near BEML’s Bengaluru complex.
"This facility is dedicated to the export of standard and broad-gauge rolling stock, further expanding BEML's global reach," BEML said in a statement.
Production and operation
The coach will undergo rigorous trials and tests for the next ten days before rolling it out on the track for further testing, Vaishnaw told reporters.
- Also read: “Will not stop until Indian Railways guarantees comfortable travel for poor, middle class”: PM Modi
“The train is expected to be open for passenger operation in the next three months,” he added.
"After Vande Bharat chair cars, we were working on Vande Bharat sleeper cars. Its manufacturing has now been completed. This train will go out for the trial and testing from the BEML facility today," Vaishnaw said.
Once the prototypes of Vande Bharat sleeper cars are properly tested, then the series of production will start.
"We will start the series of production after one-and-half years. Then, it will be like, practically, every month two to three trains will start rolling out," he added.
"We are continuously improving the design of the Vande Bharat train. We are learning from the experience and are improving it further. The same philosophy will be adopted for Vande Bharat Metro," he added.
Vaishnaw said the Railways is working on four configurations — Vande Bharat chair cars, Vande Bharat sleeper cars, Vande Bharat Metro cars and Amrit Bharat — which will change the way people travel.
Features
According to him, the Vande Bharat sleeper train with 16 coaches is meant for overnight journeys and will cover 800 km to 1,200 km. The oxygen level inside the train and virus protection, a lesson learnt from Covid-19 pandemic, are added features of the train.
"It will be a train meant for the middle class and the fares will be on par with Rajdhani Express," Vaishnaw said.
On the complaints about poor food quality being served in Vande Bharat, the Minister said the Indian Railways serve 13 lakh meals a day and the complaints are less than 0.01. "But still, we are very concerned about the complaints which come and we have taken very strong action against the caterers as well as the suppliers."
- Also watch: Inside the Chennai-based Integral Coach Factory, where Vande Bharat coaches are manufactured