Indian Railways has issued a production plan of 102 rakes of the Vande Bharat Express trains for increased operation in India. According to Indian Railways, 102 Vande Bharat rakes will be produced in a period of tow years, 35 in 2022-2023 and 67 in 2023-2024. In the Revised Estimate of Financial Year 2022–2023, a sum of Rs 19479 crore has been made available for the PH 21–Rolling Stock Project (Carriages), which is responsible for providing Vande Bharat trains, including various items of coaches. The information was conveyed by the Union Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.


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The minister informed that the first Vande Bharat Express was introduced with effect from February 15, 2019, between New Delhi and Varanasi. Presently, 10 pairs of Vande Bharat Express are in operation in the Indian Railways (IR) network.


Vaishnaw said, "A total of 75 Vande Bharat rakes are planned as Chair Car version and remaining planned as Sleeper version. IR has also planned to manufacture 400 Vande Bharat trains (Sleeper version) of three different technologies for which Tenders have been floated to select Technology Partners for manufacturing within IR Production Units with IR manpower. In addition to the above, 8000 Vande Bharat Coaches have also been proposed under Budget 2023-24."


It has been proposed to cover the Railway network with Kavach progressively. At present, Kavach has been implemented on a 1455 route kms on South Central Railway. "Further, contracts have been awarded for Kavach work on approximately 3000 route kms of Delhi-Mumbai, and Delhi-Howrah sections of Indian Railways, and work is in progress," he added.


It has been proposed to cover the Railway network with Kavach progressively.  At present, Kavach has been implemented on 1455 route kms on South Central Railway. Further, contracts have been awarded for Kavach work on approximately 3000 route kms of Delhi-Mumbai, and Delhi-Howrah sections of Indian Railways, and work is in progress.


To boost investment from the industry in the development of additional terminals for handling rail cargo, a new Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminal (GCT) policy was launched on December 15, 2021.


These terminals will be constructed on non-Railway land, as well as partially or fully on Railway land. The target is to commission 100 Gati Shakti Cargo Terminals (GCTs) in three financial years -- 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25 -- of which 30 GCTs have already been commissioned. So far, 145 applications for the development of Cargo Terminals under the GCT policy have been received, and 103 in-principle approvals have been issued. 


(With ANI Inputs)