Vande Bharat Trains: Siemens And Alstom To Make 25 Semi-High Speed Trainsets With Seating Arrangement

Ramping up Vande Bharat production, Siemens and Alstom will make 25 semi-high speed trainsets at Modern Coach Factory (MCF) at Raebareli and Rail Coach Factory (RCF) at Kapurthala, respectively.

According to the rolling stock programme effective from April 2023, MCF will manufacture nine Vande Bharat trains with propulsion systems from Siemens and RCF will make 16 Vande Bharat trains for which Alstom will provide propulsion systems.

Currently, Integral Coach Factory (ICF) was manufacturing Vande Bharat trains at its Chennai facility with propulsion systems from Medha Engineering and 14 such trains have been rolled out till now. Medha will be making a total of 44 Vande Bharat trains at ICF in the first phase.

All these 25 Vande Bharat trains to be produced at RCF and MCF would be having seating arrangement.

According to MCF, the first rake of Vande Bharat with 16 coaches is expected to come out from the Raebareli plant by the end of this year and eight rakes will be rolled out in the next fiscal.

Though the basic design will remain the same, there will be a few changes in the new Vande Bharat trains. A design team from Siemens is discussing with MCF officials about the electrics, placement of converter, transformer and configuration.

Similarly, the Alstom team is finalising the design with the RCF to manufacture a prototype after Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) approval.

According to RCF, it would be a betterment from the existing ICF design, with an improved aerodynamic design for the front and rear side. There are going to be a total of 75 Vande Bharat trains with seating arrangement.