New Delhi: The Indian Railways will introduce the sleeper version of the Vande Bharat Express train and Vande Metro next year. The sleeper variant will be for long-distance travel while Vande Metro will help commuters cover short distances.
The first sleeper coaches of the Vande Bharat Express train will be rolled out in March 2024 while Vande Metro is expected to start operating by January next year.
Both new types of Vande Bharat Express trains are being developed by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) of Indian Railways in Chennai.
The Vande Bharat sleeper has been designed for long-distance travel and can attain a speed of 220 km per hour. However, it will run at 200 km per hour on the tracks, as per officials. It will allow passengers to cover long journeys overnight at high speed.
The sleeper Vande Bharat trains are likely to serve as an alternative to Rajdhani trains. The chair car version, on the other hand, will gradually replace Shatabdi trains.
The Railways had issued a tender for 400 Vande Bharat trains. The first lot of 200 trains will be made of steel and will have seating arrangement like Shatabdi Express. The second lot will have sleeper coaches made of aluminium.
The Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata tracks will be repaired before the Vande Bharat sleeper trains run on them. Work on signal system, bridges, and fencing will also be done on the routes.
Vande Metro is being developed to facilitate short-distance travel for commuters. It is a new type of Vande Bharat train consisting of 12 coaches.
