Vande Bharat Express has touched another milestone in India with the release of a dedicated production line for Vande Bharat Sleeper trains in West Bengal. Recent reports have claimed that a new production line was inaugurated on Friday in Uttarpara, West Bengal.
The project was completed in collaboration with Titagarh Rail Systems Limited (TRSL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). The Indian Railways has offered a contract of approximately Rs 24,000 crore to TRSL and BHEL for designing, manufacturing, and maintaining the Vande Bharat Sleeper trains. It is to be noted that the companies will be responsible for the maintenance for a tenure of 35 years.
Under this contract, as many as 80 Sleeper trains will be manufactured.
All the senior officials of TRSL and BHEL attended the inauguration, including the vice chairman and managing director of TSRL - Umesh Chowdhary- and the director of BHEL - Bani Varma.
The Vande Bharat Sleeper trains -
Notably, the Vande Bharat sleeper trains will be India's first long-distance, semi-high-speed sleeper coach trains. They are being designed to offer better passenger comfort, indigenous technology, modern designs, smart onboard systems, and better safety features.
Production at the Uttarpara factory has already begun, and the first prototype will be launched next calendar year. Industry 4.0 infrastructure and robot-based lines exist in the factory, and it is the only factory in the country where stainless steel and aluminium coaches can be produced under one roof.
With its current capacity of producing 300 coaches per year, the Uttarpara plant is being expanded to 850 coaches to meet growing demand, Chowdhary said.