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Vande Bharat Express coaches to be manufactured in Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli, too
63 railway stations to be redeveloped in Uttar Pradesh and among them Lucknow division has highest share of 44 in India
Coaches of the semi-high-speed Vande Bharat Express will now be manufactured in Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli district as well, railway minister Ashwani Vaishnaw said in a press briefing in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Also, 63 stations in Uttar Pradesh, including Lucknow’s Charbagh and Varanasi station, will be redeveloped under the ‘Amrit Bharat Station Scheme’ and modernised with high-end facilities for passengers, he said.
Lucknow division has the highest number of stations (44) in India that will be redeveloped. There also 19 such stations in the Moradabad division.
In all, 1275 stations across the country have been chosen for the scheme.
Along with Rae Bareli district in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra’s Latur and Haryana’s Sonipat have been chosen for manufacture of the fully indigenous Vande Bharat Express coaches.
Till now, these trains were being manufactured at the government-owned Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai, the railway minister said.
He was explaining the railway budget, which is part of the Union Budget.
“Indian Railway got a capital outlay of ₹2.41 Lakh crore from FM. This is the highest ever capital outlay till date and is nine times the outlay provided to the railway in 2013-2014,” said finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech.
“This ramp-up project is a part of PM’s Modi vision toward making India self-reliant as we know these trains are totally indigenous. The work of manufacturing these high-speed trains at three places will be started soon and thereafter we will be able to run 2-3 trains every day by the end of the next financial year,” said the minister.
Till now, the current eight trains running at a speed of 160 km/h have completed a distance which is equal to 52 times covering the entire earth.
As for the Amrit Bharat Station Yojana, it has been started by the Railway Board to modernise small and big stations across the country.
“Lucknow division is the highest in India terms of the number of stations (44)which will be revamped under this scheme. Some of the important stations include Lucknow’s Charbagh station and Varanasi stations among others,” said Suresh Sapra, divisional railway manager, Lucknow division, Northern Railway.
