Since Vande Bharat have only a seating arrangement, they are initially slated to replace the Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi and Intercity Express. However, there is also a plan to build Vande Bharat with sleeper coaches as a replacement to Rajdhani, Duronto trains.

In the Union Budget for 2022-23, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had proposed the development of 400 new Vande Bharat trains over the next three years. Out of the proposed trains, tenders for 100 train sets are likely to tender soon.

Currently, the semi high-speed train is running on two routes, Delhi- Varanasi and Delhi- Katra.

Originally referred to as Train 18 during development, the Vande Bharat trains run without a locomotive engine and are propelled by a mechanism called distributed traction power technology that provides electric energy supply to each car in the train set. Due to the faster acceleration, the train can attain a top speed of 160 km in an hour reducing travel time by up to 25 to 45 per cent.

The trains’ current configuration comes with 16 coaches that include 14 regular chair cars and two executive chair cars.

(With inputs from agencies)