Vande Bharat Train: The government has made a big change in the plan to run semi-high speed train Vande Bharat in the country. In the earlier tender, it was said to run 120 trains, which has now been reduced to 80, but the number of coaches in it has been increased by 50 percent.
New Delhi. Modi government has made a big change in the plan to run a large number of Vande Bharat trains in the country. Under the new plan, now only 80 Vande Bharat trains will be launched in the country instead of 120, while every train will have 24 coaches instead of 16. This means that even though the number of trains may be less, the number of coaches in each train has been increased by 50 percent. Why has the government made this change and what is its purpose, we investigate this in detail through this news.
Actually, you must be aware that recently the tender of Rs 35 thousand crores issued for making coaches of Vande Bharat trains was cancelled. The company that took the tender for this asked for more money, while the railways stood by its point and finally the tender had to be rejected. Now the railways have prepared the outline of their tender again. Extensive changes have been made in it, so that this time there is no need to cancel it.
What is the new tender
The new tender has an estimated cost of Rs 120 crore for each train set. In the new order, only 80 trains are to be run and 24 coaches will be installed in each train. This tender will be handed over to the factory built in Latur, Maharashtra by November this year. This tender will be completed by Rail Vikas Nigam Limited and a consortium of Russia. The first prototype of this order will be presented by September 2025.
What was the old contract
The railway contract had an order to build 200 sleeper version Vande Bharat trains, in which 16 coaches were to be installed in each train. Along with this, the maintenance of these trains was also to be looked after for the next 35 years. In the auction, L1 had to build 120 trains at Marathwada Rail Coach Factory in Latur district, while L2 had to build 80 trains at ICF Chennai. However, the Railway Ministry has now asked to manufacture only 80 trains with 24 coaches in each.
