The design and interiors of the sleeper version of the Vande Bharat express are almost done and the Railways Ministry is giving some final touches to the 16-coach train, officials aware of the development told News18.
With the Lok Sabha polls just a few months away, the Railways Ministry is planning to launch this new train around the New Year. The deadline of finishing the work on the new trains is March 2024.
“The basic designs are finalised and we are working on details. We are expecting that the train will be rolled out around the New Year,” an official said, seeking anonymity.
The train will have wider berths and an overall brighter interior than the current sleeper coaches. It will also offer better comfort and class to the passengers. Keeping in mind the needs of the passengers, the Railways will offer upgraded and spacious toilets and will provide a dedicated charging port for each passenger.
The Integral Coach Factory (ICF), which is producing the Vande Bharat and its variants, is working on a 16-coach initial design. The fully AC train will have 11 three-tier coaches, four two-tier coaches, and one first class coach.
“While this is just an initial design, the number of coaches can vary in the later versions,” they said.
When compared to the usual sleeper trains, even Rajdhani and Tejas, the Vande Bharat is going to have better and enhanced features. However, apart from the fact that it will have sleeping arrangements, the sleeper and chair-car version of the Vande Bharat train are going to similar. The sleeper version is also being designed to run at a speed of 160 km per hour and will have a dedicated pantry in each coach.
“The state of art features of the Vande Bharat trains will be there in the sleeper version also. The new trains will have on-board infotainment, a public announcement system and a facility for passengers to speak to the loco pilot in case of emergency,” they said.
Since its launch in 2019, the Vande Bharat trains have been a hit with passengers. So far, 34 Vande Bharat trains are operational across the country. Last month, the ministry launched nine new trains in one go.
A third version of the Vande Bharat, to be called a Metro, is also in the pipeline and is expected by the year-end.
While the chair-class Vande Bharat trains are running between the cities that are about 500-800 km away, the sleeper version will be for a longer distance route. The Metros will be for cities that are situated at a distance of around 100 km.
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