The Vande Bharat Express has successfully achieved a speed of 100 kmph over the world's highest Chenab Railway Bridge and India's first cable-stayed Anji Bridge. This significant speed enhancement on the 111-km Katra-Banihal section of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Link project will reduce travel time and improve rail connectivity to the Kashmir Valley.
In a highly sensitive and time-bound mission, a live donor heart was successfully transported aboard a Vande Bharat train from Surat to Ahmedabad on Friday for transplantation at a prominent cardiac teaching hospital in Gujarat's commercial capital.
Experience the breathtaking journey of the Vande Bharat Express as it glides through snow-covered landscapes from Katra to Srinagar. Captured in stunning visuals, the train passes through Banihal in Ramban district amid fresh snowfall, highlighting the beauty of Kashmir in winter. Despite challenging weather, this high-speed rail service operates seamlessly, reflecting India's advanced railway infrastructure that connects the Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country.
The first direct Vande Bharat Express service between Jammu and Srinagar has commenced commercial operations, significantly reducing travel time between the two cities and enhancing rail connectivity in the region.
The Railway Board has reduced the speed of semi-high speed trains Gatimaan Express and Vande Bharat from 160 kmph to 130 kmph till the automatic train protection system gets operational.
75 Vande Bharat express trains will be manufactured and deployed throughout the country before August 15 next year.
The new Vande Bharat Express train is specially designed to operate seamlessly in Jammu & Kashmir's challenging winter conditions for the upcoming Katra-Srinagar rail route.
Prime ministers turning up with such frequency to launch trains is an indication of the political mileage resident in public transport. Will our railways step out of the government's shadow? After all, they are the ones manufacturing trains and running them, notes Shyam G Menon.
ome of the features including seat declining angle, better cushion for seats, better accessibility to mobile charging points than before, extended foot-rest in the Executive Chair cars among others, an official release said.
'All Shatabdis and Rajdhanis should be converted to this type of high-speed train.' 'There should be a sleeper version of the train.' 'Right now, there is only a day version of the train.' 'Unless you develop a sleeper version, it will not be possible to replace the Rajdhani.' 'Work on the sleeper version was stopped for some reason. It should be revived now.'
Surekha Yadav piloted the semi-high speed train between Solapur station and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in Mumbai on Monday.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Madhya Pradesh Governor Mangubhai Patel, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Jyotiraditya Scindia, among others, were present on the occasion.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday flagged off the Gandhinagar-Mumbai Vande Bharat Express semi-high speed train.
The newly launched Mumbai Central-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Express train suffered minor damages after hitting a herd of buffaloes in Gujarat on Thursday, officials said.
The railways also rolled out its first orange coloured Vande Bharat Express from Kasargod to Thiruvananthapuram, a high demand route which now operates two such trains, a senior Indian Railways official said.
This is not a train for the regular commuter, evident from the number of large sized bags in the overhead bin, observes IAF Veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe.
The Railway Protection Force (RPF) in Gujarat has registered a case against the owners of buffaloes that were hit by the Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat express, in which the front portion of the train was damaged, officials said on Friday.
This is the third such incident involving this semi-high speed train so far this month.
The home minister also said that Article 370 was the "biggest roadblock" in the state's development and within 10 years, it will be one of the most developed regions of the country.
Based on closed circuit television camera footage, the Visakhapatnam police nabbed the three youth from the area.
Sources said the railways is keen to ensure that a purely domestic entity bags the tender and once it was felt that the Chinese JV was a frontrunner for the project, it was scrapped.
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor were also present with the PM as he interacted with the students inside the train.
The semi-high speed Train 18, which has been recently rechristened Vande Bharat Express, can run up to a maximum speed of 160 kmph and has travel classes like Shatabdi trains but with better facilities. It aims to provide a totally new travel experience to passengers.
At an event at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in south Mumbai, Modi first flagged off the the CSMT-Solapur Vande Bharat Express and later another semi high-speed train linking the financial capital to Sainagar Shirdi temple town in Ahmednagar district.
Though bids for 43 Train 18 sets were invited first, orders for only three were given, including one for Spanish major CAF and Medha Group that supplied for the first Vande Bharat train.
The train has a lot to offer to its passengers: Silent run, fully-sealed gangway connecting two coaches, GPS-based passenger information system, modular bio-vacuum and disabled-friendly toilets, intelligent air conditioning that adjusts cooling according to the climate and closed-circuit television for safety.
On Thursday, 4 buffaloes were killed after being hit by the train.
The collision caused a minor dent to the train's front panel.
The incident had happened in Bihar when the Howrah-New Jalpaiguri semi-high-speed train was passing through that state on January 3.
Experts suggest that a revamp in the surrounding infrastructure should take care of the issues plaguing the VB-2, stressing that the lightweight nature of the trains is what allows for higher speeds, and that needless design additions may hamper the train's efficiency.
Modi accused previous governments of not providing people with facilities that were available to people elsewhere in the world even in the 20th century and in Gujarat a few years back.
The Railway Board and employees at Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, makers of the train, are at loggerheads over the proposed transfer of design and reassigning the manufacturing of Train 18 to Modern Coach Factory in Raebareli.
On August 15 last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced from the ramparts of the Red Fort that the Indian Railways would launch 75 Vande Bharat Express trains by August 2023. Later, in her 2022 Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that 400 Vande Bharat trains will be manufactured in the next three years, which are expected to cost between Rs 40,000 crore and Rs 50,000 crore. Those upbeat announcements come after a series of cancelled tenders, vigilance actions against officials and interdepartmental rivalry that delayed the addition of these iconic trains developed entirely indigenously by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai.
CRRC Pioneer Electric (India) Private Limited, whose bid for the project is a joint venture of the Chinese firm CRRC Corporation Ltd with a Gurugram-based company according to its website, is one of the six contenders for the tender for procuring propulsion systems or electric traction kits for 44 trains to function as the Vande Bharat Express or Train 18.
'This is not just Make in India; this is much more than that. Right from design to delivery, everything was done in India.'
In the remote tribal village of Pahadpur, preparations are in full swing as it looks to script history.
Indian trains remain the greatest connecters linking hearts to the last mile.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday flagged off two specially designed Vande Bharat trains between Katra town and Srinagar city, reducing travel time between the two places by two to three hours and ensuring all-weather surface connectivity with the Kashmir valley.
Trains of the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS), to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, will be known as 'Namo Bharat', Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced on Thursday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asserted that the Union government is making record investment for railway infrastructure modernisation.
