Payyanur: The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai will now focus on the Vande Sleeper project, with 40 trains scheduled to be manufactured next year. Production is expected to begin in January.

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The project is being undertaken under ICF's supervision, with foreign collaboration. With ICF having stopped production of Vande Bharat trains, the Railways' focus has now shifted to the sleeper version of the next-generation train.

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The Railways halted the production of Vande Bharat trains after introducing them on all major routes across the country. Vande Sleeper trains will use the same technology as Vande Bharat train sets. Medha Servo Drives Private Limited manufactures the propulsion systems and other components for Vande Bharat trains and also undertakes their annual maintenance. For the Vande Sleeper project, however, the plan is to invite global tenders, including for electrical equipment.

So far, four Vande Sleeper trains manufactured by Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) have been rolled out. Two operate on the Howrah-Kamakhya-Howrah route, while the other two run on the Mumbai-Bengaluru-Mumbai route. The latter is home to South India's first Vande Bharat sleeper train. It has 16 air-conditioned coaches with a total capacity of 823 berths.

Under the Railways' current policy, which takes distance and travel time into account, routes in Kerala are also expected to receive priority.

Meanwhile, a revised version of the Vande Bharat, designated Version 4.0, is being developed at ICF. Designed for high-speed corridors, the train is expected to achieve speeds of up to 350 km/h.