Operation of Vande Bharat trains subject to feasibility, traffic: Ashwini Vaishnaw

TIRUPATI: Answering an unstarred question in Parliament, Union Minister of Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw informed that the introduction of train services, including premium Vande Bharat Express, is an ongoing process subject to operational feasibility, traffic justification, availability of rolling stock, and competing demands.

Tirupati MP Maddila Gurumoorthy had raised a question on whether the Centre proposes to operate Vande Bharat Express trains in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, especially, on the popular routes of Visakhapatnam-Hyderabad and Viskhapatnam-Tirupati.The Union minister explained that Indian Railways’ train services are not operated on a State-wise basis as railway network straddles across State boundaries.

Responding to another question on current status of Vande Bharat project and whether the Central government is on track to meet the target of deploying 75 Vande Bharat Express trains by August 2023, the railway minister told Parliament that 35 Vande Bharat rakes have been approved in the Coach Production Programme in 2022-23 and another 67 rakes have been approved for 2023-24.

He said the ICF (Integral Coach Factory) has turned out five rakes of Vande Bharat trains till November 2022 and that production of rakes is being ramped up as per traffic requirements. However, the actual production depends on the supply chain which is developing rapidly, he added.

Vaishnaw said several preventive measures have been taken by zonal railways to reduce cattle run-over cases on tracks, including cleaning of garbage and removal of wild vegetation along the track, sensitisation of train crew on regular basis for frequent whistling at locations prone to cattle/animal run over, construction of fencing at identified locations of trespass by animal/cattle, counselling villagers to take steps to avoid cattle grazing near railway tracks.