India’s 3rd Vande Bharat express is ready to hit the rail tracks soon! Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Railway Minister inaugurated Vande Bharat train’s new prototype at ICF Chennai recently. Also dubbed as Train 18, its trial run was successfully completed from ICF Chennai to Padi and then back on Friday. Vaishnaw said that the new Vande Bharat train has innovative features which make it a world-class train. The Rail minister, who also witnessed the commissioning activities at the furnishing divisions of ICF said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi set a target last year to make 75 Vande Bharat trains on the 75th anniversary of India’s independence. Keeping up with the PM’s vision 75 Vande Bharat trains would be manufactured and rolled across the nation before August 15, 2023, he said.

Vande Bharat Trains will have these exciting new features, check out 

• Manufactured by the Integrated Coach Factory within a short time and in good quality, new Vande Bharat trains will have automatic opening of doors. Passengers will not be allowed to board or de-board moving trains.
• The will be comfortable space in the driver’s cabin for the loco pilots to operate
• For the comfort of passengers, new Vande Bharat train will have reclining chairs
• For passengers who are differently abled, there will be specially designed toilets
• Vande Bharat train will be tested at a speed of 180 kmph and will traverse 50,000 km The train will have better acceleration and slowing down capabilities
• The testing includes dynamic, static, load test and oscillation trials which will be carried out on different kind of situations
• All coaches are equipped with emergency lighting, GPS based audio-visual passenger information system, on-board hotspot Wi-Fi for entertainment purposes, and very comfortable seating. The executive class also has rotating chairs
• All toilets are bio-vacuum type. The lighting is dual mode, viz. diffused for general illumination and personal for every seat
• Every coach has a pantry with facilities to serve hot meals, hot and cold beverages. The insulation is meant to keep heat and noise to very low levels for additional passenger comfort
• After the trials, ICF will manufacture more such trains. As many as 475 such trains will be made in four years to cover all the states
• New Vande Bharat trains will be equipped with anti-collision Kavach technology
• These train will have platform side cameras including rear view cameras
• India’s 3rd Vande Bharat train will run on Mumbai-Ahmedabad route but the exact date of its inaugural run is not finalized yet

The first Vande Bharat Express was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 February 2019 on New Delhi-Kanpur-Prayagraj-Varanasi route. In his address to the nation on 15 August 2021 from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that during the 75 weeks of the Amrit Mahotsav of Independence, 75 Vande Bharat trains will connect every corner of the country.