Indian Railway to launch superfast Vande Bharat Freight Train

Tags: Economy/Finance

According to the Union Ministry of Railway, Indian Railway will soon introduce a freight version of the indigenous semi-High Speed Train, Vande Bharat.  

Integral Coach Factory, Chennai which manufactures the bulk of the Vande Bharat train will also manufacture the initial Vande Bharat freight trains. 

Features of the freight train

• The freight train will be an Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) train which will target the high-value time-sensitive cargo, which is presently being transported through other modes of transport.
• These super-fast parcel trains made of aluminium will run at a maximum speed of 160 Kmph and the inaugural service will be on Delhi NCR- Mumbai region route.
• The train will be 16 coach formations equipped with 1,800 mm wide automatic sliding plug doors and capacity to carry 264 tonnes payloads.
• Each train would have two refrigerated wagons — the first and last cars in the train, to ferry perishable items such as fruits and vegetables.
• According to the National Rail Plan ,the  Railways is aiming to increase its share in freight transportation from the present 27% to 45% by 2030 through better infrastructure and business development plans.

Indian Railways first Vande Bharat Train service in South India 

• The Indian railways plans to introduce Vande Bharat train services in South India on Chennai -Bengaluru and Mysuru route on 10 November.
• This will be the fifth train of the Vande Bharat series.
•  Recently the Prime Minister inaugurated the 3rd and 4th Vande Bharat Train in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh respectively.
• The first Vande Bharat train was started on 15 February 2019 on the New Delhi to Varanasi route and the second route on which it runs is New Delhi to Katra.

New Vande Bharat trains 

• Earlier, last month the new improved Vande Bharat Express 2.0 between Gandhinagar and Mumbai was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  It was the third train in the Vande Bharat series.
• Vande Bharat Express 2.0 is equipped with advanced state-of-the-art safety features including an indigenously developed Train Collision Avoidance System - KAVACH. 
• The train can reach the speed of 0 to 100 kilometres per hour in just 52 seconds, and a maximum speed up to 180 kilometres per hour.