- Minister of Railways Shri Piyush Goyal announced the name Vande Bharat Express for Train 18, acknowledging its made-in-India status.
- This train set has been manufactured by Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in the period of 18 months under ‘Make in India’ program.
- Since the launch of Rajdhani trains, Vande Bharat Express is the next major leap for Indian Railways in terms of speed and convenience. It is India’s first semi-high speed train equipped with world class passenger amenities.
- It can achieve high speeds (max speed of 160 kmph) due to faster acceleration & deceleration and will reduced journey time by 25% to 45%.
- Scheduled commute between New Delhi & 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 which debut for the very first time on Indian Railways.
- It has been provided with ‘State of the Art’ passenger amenities like On-board wifi entertainment, GPS based passenger information system, CCTVs, bio-vacuum toilets, rotating chairs in executive class, etc. at par with global standards. It also has provision of Divyang-friendly facilities. It will have 16 coaches with Chair Car type configuration with 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 efficient.
