Vande Bharat Trains have proven to be one of the successful projects of Indian Railways, renowned for their high-speed capabilities. With a maximum operational speed of 180 km/hr, these trains have significantly reduced travel times between major cities. Following this success, the highly anticipated bullet train project is set to become a reality soon.
Indian Railways is preparing to launch its own indigenous bullet train, expected to run at speeds of up to 250 kilometers per hour. The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) has been tasked with constructing two standard gauge bullet trains within the current financial year. This initiative marks the first time that trains capable of reaching such speeds will be manufactured in India. These bullet trains will operate on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor, according to reports.
These two trains are intended to operate on the Rs 1.08 lakh crore Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor. It is likely that the trains will be constructed using the Vande Bharat platform. Although utilizing an existing platform would assist ICF in reducing the time required to deliver the train sets, experts noted that supplying them within this fiscal year would be a challenging task.
The cost of a 10-coach bullet train was estimated at Rs 389 crore in 2018, with each train expected to reach cruising speeds of over 300 km/h. In 2023, the estimated supply cost was revised to Rs 460 crore per train set. Despite the Japanese consortium's willingness to supply the 'Shinkansen' train sets, the Indian Railways remains unconvinced about the offered price.
The bullet train project has experienced significant delays from its original completion deadline of 2022, primarily due to land acquisition challenges in Maharashtra. Experts believe that ICF will face an uphill battle to meet the timeline set by the Indian Railways for developing trains capable of running at 250 km/h. Sudhanshu Mani said to ET that, a retired Indian Railways official credited with developing the first variant of the Vande Bharat trains, noted that the current top speed of Vande Bharat trains is only 180 km/h. He added, "This bullet train development and supply target can be achieved by ICF over three to four years.”
To aid in the construction of the Vande Bharat bullet trains, Indian Railways is in discussions with Japanese rolling stock suppliers, Hitachi and Kawasaki. Despite these challenges, the project is moving forward, promising to revolutionize high-speed rail travel in the country.