Chennai factory aims to build 75 Vande Bharat trains in a year: Official

Chennai's Integral Coach Factory sets up target as govt aims to have 475 new such trains by 2024-25

The Integral Coach Factory in Chennai will build at least 75 new Vande Bharat trains within a year, a top ICF official told Business Standard.

The government aims to have 475 new Vande Bharat trains by 2024-25, aiming to use their indigenous manufacturing to highlight its Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign. “ICF is on track to manufacture 75 new trains within a year’s time. The remaining targets will be based on what the Railways ministry decides,” said Atul Agarwal, general manager, ICF.

ICF has set the manufacturing target at a time when the final trial of the third Vande Bharat train, between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, is expected to start on September 7. Two pairs of Vande Bharat run between New Delhi and Varanasi and Delhi and Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget speech in February announced a plan to build 400 such trains. July 26 was the deadline for the first round of tenders for 200 sleeper versions of Vande Bharat train sets but it was extended to October 10. The delay in the deadline is likely to hit the 2024-25 target of coming up with 400 new trains with private participation.

“Private sector would bring in efficiencies in manufacture and if encouraged by IR, by far the largest purchaser, we can hope to see a variety of high end products with current technologies. While the government manufacturing can be corporatized to give it freedom from IR’s bureaucracy, it should not be given up as IR has to cater to all levels of travellers, including those in the lowest strata, the common men,” said Sudhanshu Mani, former general manager, ICF.

Private companies reportedly keen on the project include Medha Servo Drives, Alstom India, Siemens, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Titagarh Wagons, CAF, Crompton Greaves, Cummins India, ELGI Equipment and Texmaco. One set of Vande Bharat is made at a cost of around Rs 106 crore, which means around 475 sets of trains may cost over Rs 50,000 crore for the Indian Railways. The sets have 16 coaches each and are self-propelled.

Mani said the Indian Railways could export the trains. “There is always the possibility of exporting these trains after we successfully run fifteen odd trains, learn from the experience and upgrade the product,” he said.

“There is the question, of course, whether 500 plus such trains can be run in the course of next four years or so as the candidates for replacement are Shatabdis, Rajdhanis and some other inter-city. But since the government has already taken the plunge we have to make the best of what is a given now, early development of a Sleeper version, which was in hand in 2018 but abandoned, should be taken up by ICF without waiting for a private player to develop it under the tender of 200 trains,” he said.