Chennai: 75 out of 400 Vande Bharat trains that were announced on Independence Day last year will start service by the end of 2023, sources say. Some of these trains will also run to Kerala. The first train is expected to become operational by March 2022, and the second one by June. Other trains will also start their services in stages.

The new Train-18 trains come under the umbrella of the newly declared PM Gati Shakti.

The manufacturing of 400 will be completed within three years. The trains will have AC sleeper coaches for long-distance services.

To attain the best operational speed, the curves, ascents and descents of the railway track in Kerala have to be rectified within two years. Automatic signal systems should also be implemented.

The Southern Railway earns most of its revenue from the trains services in Kerala. Vande Bharat AC chair car trains will have services from Mangaluru to Thiruvananthapuram and from Thiruvananthapuram to Ernakulam

Since these trains can travel in both directions easily like MEMU, there is no need to change the engines at the end of each service. The trains have electric traction motors that power them on every three coaches.

Construction in progress

The Vande Bharat trains, once manufactured, will trial run for three months. The Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) and the Railway Safety Commissioner will approve the trains after the fitness test. Private companies that are a part of the Make in India project, Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai, Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala and Modern Coach Factory in Raebareli are engaged in the manufacture.

The first Vande Bharat train that was manufactured by ICF in 2018 cost Rs 100 crore. However, the ICF sources revealed that the cost of the Vande Bharat trains that are currently being built with 16 coaches, would be significantly less.