New Delhi: Indian Railways is entering a new era of mobility since the launch of Rajdhani trains. Now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the Vande Bharat Express (Train 18) on Friday. Acknowledging its made-in-India status, Indian Railways has named the indigenously manufactured Train 18 as Vande Bharat Express.

It is India’s first semi high-speed train equipped with world-class passenger amenities. It is set to run between Delhi and Varanasi at a maximum speed of 160 kmph.

Minister of railways and coal, Piyush Goyal, has called it a vandaniya (thankful) step towards realisation of the vision of New India.

This train has been manufactured by Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in a time period of 18 months under the ‘Make in India’ programme.

Since the launch of Rajdhani trains, Vande Bharat Express is the next major leap for Indian Railways in terms of speed and convenience.

With its high speeds, the train will reduce journey time by 25% to 45%. scheduled commute between New Delhi and Varanasi will take approximately 8 hours making it 40-50% faster than the fastest train currently connecting these two cities.

 

Vande Bharat Express incorporates many modern features. It has been provided with state-of-the-art passenger amenities like on-board Wi-Fi entertainment, GPS-based passenger information system, CCTVs, bio-vacuum toilets, rotating chairs in executive class  on par with global standards.

 

Even the specially-abled can have a friendly ride on the train, which has 16 coaches with ‘chair car’ type configuration (2 executive class chair cars and 14 chair cars).

 

Further, it has intelligent braking system with power regeneration for better energy efficiency thereby making it cost, energy and environment effective.