Indian Railways Plans Eight-Line Maintenance Facility For Vande Bharat Trains At CSMT's Wadi Bunder Yard

Work is in progress to establish a dedicated eight-line maintenance facility for Vande Bharat trains at Wadi Bunder Yard near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), a report in Indian Express said.

Citing a Central Railway official, the report said that the tender for the development of the said state-of-the-art facility will be called soon.

Mumbai currently has two Vande Bharat (VB) trains from CSMT: one each for Gandhinagar, Shirdi and Solapur, which will increase to four, once the CSMT-Madgaon VB train is commissioned.

The train was scheduled to be flagged off virtually by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 3 June, but the event got cancelled due to the Odisha train tragedy on 2 June.

As per sources from the Railways, there is a plan to introduce more Vande Bharat trains from CSMT Mumbai to destinations such as Kolhapur and Jalna, among others depending on the demand and popularity in coming days.

With the anticipated increase in the number of Vande Bharat trains originating from Mumbai, the Railways has decided to establish a dedicated maintenance facility to take care of these rakes.

Oldest Yard With Colonial History

Established in 1882, Wadi Bunder is the oldest yard in the city. Spread across 19.2 hectares of land, the Wadi Bunder yard is termed to be the vital part of the Mumbai division.

The yard currently handles primary maintenance of the conventional mail express trains originating from CSMT across its eight lines. Notably, the maintenance of the two Vande Bharat trains for Shirdi and Solapur is done by Railways in Wadi Bunder yard only.

The selection of Wadi Bunder site for maintenance of Vande Bharat trains starting from CSMT is largely due to its close proximity with the station.

According to the report, the eight new lines will be an additional facility that will be made available for these premium trains.

The report, quoting the official, added that of the eight lines that have been proposed to be developed, initially four lines will be developed — three for maintenance and one will be a sick line (meant for major and periodical maintenance of the coaches).

Moreover, the maintenance will be done through a private contractor. However, all eight lines will not be given to the private contractor. It will be given as per the requirement as more Vande Bharat trains get added into the fleet.

Additionally, another senior official from Central Railways confirmed that the Railways may ask the private contractor which will be hired for maintenance work to develop the infrastructure of maintenance as well.