Vande Bharat train for Mumbai-Ahmedabad route arrives in city

Vande Bharat train for Mumbai-Ahmedabad route arrived in Mumbai on Friday. Pic/ Rajendra Aklekar

The iconic semi-high speed Vande Bharat Train, express train that has been finalised for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route arrived in Mumbai on Western Railway on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route for its time-table trials. The train arrived was at Mumbai Central for nearly an hour before returning back.

"This train is important for Indian Railways as it takes trains in India to the next level. This being a train set eliminates the need of having a locomotive, noise-making generator cars or the advanced HoG-tech locos. Trials on Ahmedabad-Mumbai route today," a senior official said.

Officials said that the train will undergo a series of further route trials for getting the safety clearance for commercial runs by the Chief Commissioner Railway Safety (CCRS). Once all approvals are in place, the railway ministry will formally give a green signal.

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad inter-city route has been selected keeping in mind the convenience of the passengers returning in the morning and returning in the evening.

"The train has already gone through nearly a month-long oscillation and braking trials in different routes, on different terrain and speeds, starting from 115kmph to 180kmph in north India. Oscillation trials were also conducted in both loaded and empty conditions. Currently, two Vande Bharat trains are running on Delhi-Katra and Delhi-Varanasi routes," the official added.

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Vande Bharat Express is designed to be capable of running at a maximum speed of 200 km/h (120 mph), but the tracks on which the train operates are not capable of supporting such high speeds, hence the train is operated at a maximum speed of 130 km/h (81 mph). During the trials it achieved a record speed of 180 km/h (110 mph). This made it one of the fastest trains to run in India.

The semi-high-speed train is a first-of-its-kind self-propelled train set. It has automatic doors and air-conditioned chair car coaches with revolving chairs which can rotate up to 180 degrees.

Indian Railways has been working on a plan to operate 75 Vande Bharat trains by 2023 across the country on prominent routes. The manufacturing of Vande Bharat express trains has started by Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai.