Railway Budget 2023: Vande Bharat trains
Indian Railways has been focussing on the rollout of 75 Vande Bharat trains by August 2023. Meanwhile, the tender for the manufacturing of 200 Vande Bharat sleeper trains is expected to be awarded soon. The Vande Bharat Express trains are chair car services that are slowly replacing Shatabdi Express trains on the Indian Railways network. The sleeper versions of Vande Bharat Express will look to replace the premium Rajdhani Express trains.
Railway Budget 2023 is expected to see an announcement of 400-500 semi-high speed Vande Bharat trains. Railway experts have stressed on the need to upgrade major tracks to 160 kmph speed potential to be able to run the Vande Bharat trains to their full potential.
Economic Survey 2023 has also acknowledged the introduction of Vande Bharat trains as a major initiative by Indian Railways. “Semi High-Speed self-propelled Vande Bharat Trainsets were manufactured by Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, with indigenous efforts. These trains have ultra-modern features like quick acceleration, substantial reduction in travel time, having maximum speed of 160 kmph, on-board infotainment and Global Positioning System (GPS) based passenger information system, etc,” the Survey says.
Apart from this Railway Budget 2023 is also expected to highlight Indian Railways’ efforts towards 100% electrification and shift towards green energy initiatives. Railway station redevelopment is also likely to feature prominently in the Railway Budget apart from updates on the dedicated freight corridor projects.
