Indian Railways has entrusted the Integral Coach Factory with the task of manufacturing standard gauge bullet trains in the current financial year. This will be the first time that trains with a speed of 250 kmph will be manufactured in India.
There has been a discussion of bullet train and Vande Bharat train in Indian Railways for the last 10 years. The dream of Vande Bharat train has come true. Now it is the turn of bullet train. Meanwhile, India is preparing to launch an indigenous bullet train. The special thing is that the speed of this bullet train manufactured in India will be up to 250 kilometers per hour.
According to ET report, Indian Railways has assigned the task of making 2 standard gauge bullet trains to Integral Coach Factory within the current financial year. This will be the first time that trains with a speed of 250 kilometers per hour will be manufactured in India. Both these bullet trains will be run on Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor.
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These trains are likely to be built on the Vande Bharat platform. A senior officer aware of the matter said that ICF, Chennai has been asked to build 2 standard gauge train sets, whose speed will be from 220 km to 250 km per hour.
How much will it cost
ICF Chennai received this order from the Railways a few weeks ago. Now talks are being held with Japanese rolling stock suppliers, Hitachi and Kawasaki, for the construction of Vande Bharat bullet train. In 2018, the cost of building a 10-coach bullet train was Rs 389 crore. But, this cost has increased to Rs 460 crore in 2023. The Japanese company is ready to supply the bullet train but the Railways is not ready to buy it at this offer price.
Construction on Vande Bharat platform
The completion of the bullet train project in India is getting delayed. Earlier, the target was to complete this project by 2022. But, its construction got delayed due to land acquisition in Maharashtra. On the other hand, experts believe that ICF will develop a bullet train with a speed of 250 kmph by the stipulated deadline. Let us tell you that Vande Bharat trains are being manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) of Indian Railways in Chennai. Now preparations are being made to make the bullet train on this platform.
