With the announcement of 400 Vande Bharat trains in the Budget, I was flooded with calls. It is immensely gratifying to learn that the government has announced that these trains would be rolled out in the next three years.
As the creator, it is a moment of great pride for me and the team which built the first rakes in 2018-19. It is also a vindication as the project had been dragged into an unnecessary controversy since early 2019 and things improved after the new rail minister took over.
With regard to the practicality of turning out 400 trains in three years, yes, it is an extremely ambitious target. If it happens, I would be the happiest. At the same time, I would think that a more realistic target of say 150 trains would have been better.
This target itself would need very concerted and committed action by railway executives, particularly at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF). I also hope that the rakes to be built in future are an improvement over the first two and care should be taken that there is no deterioration in quality.
I also hope that ICF would soon start working on the project of the Sleeper version of Train 18, christened as Train 19, and on the aluminium-bodied energy-efficient Train 20; the project lying in limbo for three years.
(The writer is a Retd. GM (Integral Coach Factory), creator of Train 18/0Express)
