New Delhi: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that the much-awaited Vande Bharat Sleeper trains will be launched once the second train is ready for service, likely by October 15, 2025.

One train has already completed necessary trials and is ready for launch at Shakur Basti Coaching Depot in Delhi. However, the minister clarified on Tuesday that the launch will only happen when the second rake is also ready to ensure uninterrupted regular service.

“Both the trains will be launched together,” Vaishnaw said, adding that maintaining service continuity was the priority.

"That's why we are waiting for a second rake. Once we get it, we will decide any route and start operations," Vaishnaw added.

There is speculation that the first route may be between New Delhi and Patna, especially since Bihar is heading into elections later this year.

New rail projects and station upgrades

Vaishnaw, along with Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu, briefed the media on the status of the existing and upcoming railway projects in Punjab.

They said the upcoming 18-kilometre Rajpura-Mohali line will connect the area to Chandigarh via the shortest route on the Ambala-Amritsar main line.

Besides providing direct connectivity between Rajpura and Mohali and reducing travel distance by approximately 66 kilometres, the rail link will also ease traffic on the existing Rajpura-Ambala route and shorten the Ambala-Morinda link.

Vaishnaw said the Railway Ministry has also proposed to launch a new Vande Bharat train between New Delhi and Firozpur Cantonment, which will cover the Faridkot, Bhatinda (W), Dhuri, Patiala, Ambala Cantonment, Kurukshetra and Panipat stations.

According to the Railways, the train will cover a distance of 486 kilometres between Delhi and Firozpur Cantonment in 6 hours and 40 minutes.

"I will request the Prime Minister to approve the Firozpur-Delhi Vande Bharat train," Vaishnaw said.

The ministers shared nine important railway projects that were commissioned after 2014.

These include the new Nangal Dam-Daulat Pur Chowk line (61 kilometres, Rs 672 crore), and the doubling of Chakki Bank-Bharoli line (3 kilometres, Rs 15 crore), Jakhal-Mansa line (45 kilometres, Rs 163 crore), JUC-SuchiPind line (4 kilometres, Rs 24 crore), Ambala-Chandigarh line (45 kilometres, Rs 338 crore), Mansa-Bhatinda line (49 kilometres, Rs 216 crore), Amritsar-Chheharta line (7 kilometres, Rs 31 crore), Jalandhar-Jammu Tawi line (211 kilometres, Rs 850 crore) and Rajpura-Bathinda line (173 kilometres, Rs 2,459 crore).

7 Railway projects under execution

These include Nangal Dam-Talwara new line (123 kilometres, Rs 2,018 crore), Bhanupalli-Bilaspur-Beri new line (63 kilometres, Rs 6,753 crore), and Ferozpur-Patti new line (26 kilometres, Rs 300 crore), and the doubling of Mansa-Bhatinda line (80 kilometres, Rs 449 crore), Ludhiana-Kila Raipur line (17 kilometres, Rs 238 crore), Ludhiana-Mullanpur line (21 kilometres, Rs 295 crore) and Alal-Himmatana line (13 kilometres, Rs 174 crore).

Additionally, 30 railway stations are being modernised under the Amrit Bharat station redevelopment scheme.

Vaishnaw also praised the improvements in train punctuality, stating that 29 divisions – including Malda, Mysore, Sealdah, Nagpur, and Trivandrum – have achieved 90% on-time performance.

PTI inputs