A consortium led by Titagarh Rail Systems Limited (TRSL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited signed a contract on Wednesday (14 June) with Indian Railways for manufacturing and maintenance of 80 fully assembled Vande Bharat sleeper train sets.
This is the first time a contract of this value has been awarded to a private sector player for design and manufacturing of complete train sets and maintenance for 35 years.
The estimated value of the contract is Rs 23,000 crore.
The Vande Bharat trains represent a significant advancement for Indian Railways under the Make-in-India programme launched by the government.
The TRSL-BHEL consortium was the only Aatmanirbhar consortium that participated in the tender process, subsequently being awarded the project.
Speaking on the occasion, Titagarh Rail Systems Limited (TRSL), vice chairman and managing director Umesh Chowdhary said, “We are committed to becoming a modest contributor to the Prime Minister’s Aatmanirbhar vision. Vande Bharat trains has revolutionised the way we travel, and we are proud to be a part of the government’s Make-in-India initiative. Our focus on adopting the latest technology to boost our engineering prowess will help us build state-of the art railway trainsets, at par with global standards.”
Chowdhary further said, “The order shall be carried out over a span of six years, wherein the first prototype shall be delivered within a two-year timeframe, after which the remaining deliveries will take place.”
The final assembly, testing and commissioning of the Vande Bharat sleeper trains will be done at the Railways’ facilities in Chennai. There will be 16 coaches in each train, with an approximate capacity to accommodate 887 passengers in total.
The train will be designed to achieve a speed range of 180 kilometres per hour (kmph) and will be operating at 160 kmph.