THE NEW VANDE BHARAT EXPRESS 2023:

Theme:

The Vande Bharat Express:

• The Vande Bharat Express can run up to a maximum speed of 160 mph and has travel classes like Shatabdi Train but with better facilities. It aims to provide a totally new travel experience to passengers. Speed, Safety and Service are the hallmarks of this train. Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai.
• The Railways Production unit has been the force behind an utterly in-house design and manufacture, computer modelling and working with many suppliers for system integration in just 18 months.

Objectives behind Vande Bharat Express:

This train has 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.

Currently, the eight Vande Bharat Express Trains are running on the following routes:
1. New Delhi – Shri Vaishno Devi Mata, Katra
2. New Delhi – Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
3. Gandhinagar Capital – Ahmedabad – Mumbai Central
4. Amb Andaura – New Delhi
5. Mysuru – Puratchi Thalaivar Dr MGR Chennai Central
6. Nagpur, Maharashtra – Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh
7. Howrah – New Jalpaiguri, West Bengal
8. Secunderabad, Telangana – Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh

The culmination of the ‘Make in India’ effort of Indian Railways:

• In maintaining with the Prime Minister’s plan of “Make in India”, the principal systems of the train have been designed and built in India.
• The train matches worldwide standards in overall performance; gives safety and passenger consolation costs much less than imaginable, and has the capacity to be a changer inside the rail commercial enterprise.
• Vision for a New India Vande Bharat Express is the next predominant leap for Indian Railways regarding speed and convenience.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that during the 75 weeks of the Amrit Mahotsav of Independence, 75 Vande Bharat trains would connect each corner of the country.

Enhanced Safety:

• The Vande Bharat 2.0 trains have the KAVACH (Train Collision Avoidance System) for enhanced safety in operations. There will be improved security with four emergency windows added in every coach.
• There will be four platform side cameras including rearview cameras outside the coach instead of two earlier. The new coaches have Level-II safety integration certification for better train control.
• The Vande Bharat 2.0 will also have better fire safety measures with an Aerosol based fire detection and suppression system in all electrical cubicles and toilets. There will be superior floodproofing for under-slung electrical equipment to withstand floods up to 650 mm in height as compared to 400 mm earlier.
• The train will also have four emergency lighting in every coach in case of electric failure.

Improved Amenities for Passengers:

• There will be enhanced riding comfort for passengers at a 3.5 riding index. The new Vande Bharat will also have 32-inch LCD TVs in place of the earlier 24-inch TVs. There will be a passenger information and communication system in Vande Bharat 2.0. 15 per cent more energy efficient ACs with dust-free clean air cooling of traction motor will make travel more comfortable.
• Side recliner seat facility which is being provided to Executive Class passengers, will now be made available for all classes. The Executive Coaches have the added feature of 180-degree rotating seats. The train will also have bio-vacuum toilets with touch-free amenities. The trains will also have wifi content on demand.

Other Enhancements:

• The Vande Bharat 2.0 will have finer heat ventilation and air-conditioning control through a higher efficiency compressor, with an Ultra Violet (UV) lamp for a germ-free supply of air. The train’s time to reach 160 KMPH will be 140 seconds, compared to 145 seconds earlier. There will be driver-guard communication with a voice recording facility.
• There will be a change of formation with a non-driving trailer coach in the middle for better acceleration and deceleration. The train will have better ventilation for traction motors for better reliability. There will also be two signal exchange lights on the coaches for the exchange of signals with the wayside stations.

Features and Amenities in Vande Bharat Express:

• The Vande Bharat Express train has an intelligent braking system which enables better acceleration and deceleration. All coaches are equipped with automatic doors; GPS-based audio-visual passenger information system, on-board 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, hot and cold beverages. The insulation is meant to keep heat and noise to very low levels for additional passenger comfort.
•  The Vande Bharat Express has 16 air-conditioned coaches of which two are executive class coaches. The total seating capacity is 1,128 passengers.

  

Conclusion:

From this extraordinary railway system, we can understand that the Indian Government has put more effort towards proving the ‘Make in India’ campaign true. Indian Railway system always proves to be the best among all the sectors present in the country.