City’s first Vande Bharat Express to arrive today for trial run

Mumbai Mumbai’s first Vande Bharat Express (Ahmedabad-Mumbai route) is set to arrive at Mumbai Central on Wednesday for a route trial run

Mumbai Mumbai’s first Vande Bharat Express (Ahmedabad-Mumbai route) is set to arrive at Mumbai Central on Wednesday for a route trial run. It will depart from Ahmedabad at 7am, will have a halt at Vadodara and reach Mumbai Central. The same train will then return to Ahmedabad.

Vande Bharat Express is a 16-coach formation of semi high speed train with automatic doors, air-conditioning and provision for revolving chairs at 180 degrees (HT File)

“This route trial run will help us ensure permanent and temporary speed restriction on the entire up and down line. Moreover, keeping in mind the costly equipment on the train set, additional Railway Protection Force will be deployed for round-the-clock security of the coach at Ahmedabad and Mumbai central stations,” said a senior officer from Western Railway.

Though designed to run at 200kmph, the train as part of the trial run will operate at 130kmph. Post the route trial, these trains will require a go ahead from the chief commissioner of Railway safety. Railways plan to run 75 such trains by 2023. At present, there are two other Vande Bharat trains originating from Delhi to Varanasi and Katra (Jammu).

Vande Bharat Express is a 16-coach formation of semi high speed train with automatic doors, air-conditioning and provision for revolving chairs at 180 degrees. The rakes have been manufactured at Integral Coach Factory in Chennai. The rakes, filled with sand bags to imitate the load at which it will run once it starts functioning, are at the final stages of trial run right now. It has completed oscillation and brake trials on both loaded and empty rakes. During these trials on certain sections the train also ran up to 180kmph.

With the aim to make tracks compatible with such high-speed trains, Western Railway has initiated various ways to ensure that the track on the Mumbai Central to Ahmedabad route increases its speed limit to 160kmph.

“At various locations like from Virar to Godhra, Ratlam to Nagda in Madhya Pradesh (where Western Railway jurisdiction ends) and Vadodara to Ahmedabad the speed limit on tracks are being increased from 130kmph to 160kmph. For this, various efforts like lifting of the tracks, boundary wall and fencing, rebuilding or strengthening of bridges and realignment of curves are being taken up. As part of this project, we have completed work to build a well-lit weather-covered shed at Mumbai Central coaching depot,” said Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer, Western Railway.