Sixth Launch Today, 69 Trains To Go: Vande Bharat Gathers Steam With 8 Months to Deadline
News 18The Railway Ministry is gearing up for the challenging target of launching 75 Vande Bharat trains over the course of 75 weeks of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day earlier this year. Speaking to News18, a ministry official said the Integral Coach Factory has so far made five Vande Bharat trains, adding that the production of these rakes is being stepped up as per traffic requirement. On the routes where the new trains will be launched, the official said that introduction of the new Vande Bharat Express is an ongoing process. Currently, Vande Bharat Express runs between New Delhi and Shri Vaishno Devi Mata, Katra; New Delhi and Varanasi; Gandhinagar Capital and Mumbai Central; Amb Andaura and New Delhi; and Mysuru and Chennai Central. “There have been incidents of cattle being run over, resulting in damages to nose cone of leading Driving Trailer Car,” the official said, adding that the nose cone of the Vande Bharat trains has been designed as a replaceable component to absorb energy resulting from inadvertent cases of cattle being run over, without affecting safety of the trains.