AIR Spotlight: Vande Bharat Express

AIR Spotlight is an insightful program featured daily on the All India Radio News on air. In this program, many eminent panellists discuss issues of importance which can be quite helpful in IAS exam preparation.

This article is about the discussion on the Vande Bharat Express – ‘Desh ki train’.

Participants:

• Vijay Dutt – Former Additional Member of the Indian Railways
• V. Ravi Kumar – AIR Correspondent

Context – The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi virtually flagged off the Vande Bharat Express train connecting Secunderabad with Visakhapatnam. This train is the eighth Vande Bharat Express to be introduced by Indian Railways and is the first one connecting the two Telugu-speaking states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, covering a distance of around 700 km.

Vande Bharat Express – Indigenously built semi-high-speed train

• As an excellent example of the ‘Make in India’ success story, the Indian Railways launched India’s first indigenous Semi High-Speed Train, the Vande Bharat Express.
• The first ‘Vande Bharat Express’ train was flagged off by Shri Narendra Modi on the New Delhi – Kanpur – Allahabad – Varanasi- route in February 2019.
• The Vande Bharat Express, earlier known as Train 18, is an electric multiple-unit train designed and manufactured by the government-owned Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai. 
• The Vande Bharat Express can run up to a maximum speed of 160 km/hr.
• It can achieve high speeds due to faster acceleration and deceleration and also reduce journey time by 25% to 45%. 

Features of the Vande Bharat Express

• The Vande Bharat Express train has an intelligent braking system which enables better acceleration and deceleration. 
• All coaches are equipped with automatic doors; 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. 
• Bio-vacuum type toilets. 
• Lighting is dual mode – diffused for general illumination and personal for every seat.
• 16 air-conditioned coaches of which two are executive class coaches.
• Divyang-friendly facilities.
• The regenerative braking system can save up to 30% of electrical energy. 

Vande Bharat 2.0 – a new avatar of Vande Bharat

The first Vande Bharat 2.0 was flagged off by the Prime Minister on September 30, 2022, from Gandhinagar to Mumbai.

• Vande Bharat 2.0 is equipped with more advancements and improved features such as reaching a speed of 0 to 100 kilometres per hour in just 52 seconds, and a maximum speed of up to 180 kilometres per hour. It weighs 392 tons instead of the earlier 430 tons.
• It is equipped with advanced state-of-the-art safety features including an indigenously developed Train Collision Avoidance System – KAVACH.
  • Kavach is a state-of-the-art electronic system designed to help Indian Railways achieve zero accidents. It is a Safety Integrity Level 4 (SIL-4) certified technology with the probability of an error being one in 10,000 years. 
• In the new design of Vande Bharat Express, a photo-catalytic ultraviolet air purification system is installed in the Roof-Mounted Package Unit (RMPU) for air purification.

7 Vande Bharat Express Trains already running in India –

Currently, Vande Bharat Trains travel on 7 routes linking –

• Delhi to Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh)
• Ambala / Una (Himachal Pradesh) to Katra (Jammu & Kashmir)
• Chennai – Mysuru
• Mumbai – Gandhinagar
• Bilaspur – Nagpur
• Howrah – Jalpaiguri

Union Budget 2022: 400 Vande Bharat Trains in three years 

In the Union Budget 2022-23, Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman announced that four hundred new-generation Vande Bharat Trains with better energy efficiency and passenger riding experience will be developed and manufactured during the next three years. 

Indian Railways to become Net Zero Emitter by 2030

At COP26, Glasgow, India announced a net-zero carbon emission target by 2070. Indian Railways plans to electrify the entire rail network, use more renewable energy, and take other steps to become a “net zero” carbon emissions organisation by 2030 and contribute significantly towards the target of net zero by 2070.

• Electrification of Indian Railways to lower carbon footprint – Indian Railways aims for 100% electrification to reduce carbon emissions and improve train operations efficiency in order to become the world’s largest Green Railways by 2030.
• The Railways has planned to electrify balance Broad Gauge (BG) routes by December 2023 to achieve 100% electrification in order to capitalise on the economic benefits of electric traction in a timely manner.
• Other actions to achieve this goal include cutting back on diesel use (electricity from renewable sources), increasing the energy efficiency of locomotives, trains, and fixed installations, green-labelling facilities and stations, and installing bio-toilets in coaches.

Read previous AIR Spotlight articles in the link.

AIR Spotlight: Vande Bharat Express:- Download PDF Here