India: The national operator reports the new batch of the second-generation trains starting revenue service on ten intercity routes on 12 March.
Given the condition of infrastructure, their maximum speed is limited to 130 km/h. There are 51 trains of this type – counting new vehicles – on 45 Indian routes.
Vande Bharat is the first indigenously manufactured EMU, produced since 2019 under the Make-in-India initiative. The manufacturing is based at the IR-owned ICF site in Chennai and the BEML plant in Bengaluru. Initially, ICF had planned to make 75 trains by August 2023, however, the production capacity constraints stalled the order.
The Vande Bharat inauguration in India. Source: India’s Ministry of Railways
Vande Bharat is to become one of the most popular train platforms in the world. A total of 300 trains have been ordered from the consortia TMH-RVNL and Titagarh Wagons-BHEL as well as Alstom, with another 400-450 units announced for procurement.
