New Vande Bharat Express will be saffron in colour

The 28th rake of Indian-built semi-high-speed Vande Bharat Express will be 'saffron' in colour, railway officials said on Saturday.

The new saffron Vande Bharat Express is however not yet operational and is currently stationed at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai, where Vande Bharat trains are manufactured.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday visited the Integral Coach Factory and inspected the manufacturing of Vande Bharat trains at the facility in Chennai .
On a brief visit to the city, Vaishnaw, accompanied by senior officials of the ICF, took stock of the production of the latest new-generation high-speed trains and went around the sprawling campus.

"Inspected Vande Bharat train production at ICF, Chennai," he said and shared images of his visit to the factory in a social media post.

The minister interacted with the officials and staff at the ICF including its General Manager B G Mallya.

Later, briefing reporters, Vaishnaw said he inspected about 25 safety and technical improvement features that have been implemented in the next set of Vande Bharat Express currently under production at the factory.

Some of the features including seat declining angle, better cushion for seats, better accessibility to mobile charging points than before, extended foot-rest in the Executive Chair cars among others, an official release said.

Railways work based on the feedback received from the passengers as well as other stakeholders. These inputs are being used to better the coaches for safe and comfortable travel of the passengers, he said.

"The process of production of Vande Bharat Sleeper Version as well as the Vande Metro Coaches are going in a very good phase" he said.

Railways were also involved in the manufacturing of coaches with advanced features to cater to the unreserved and general class passengers.

In 2018-19, ICF rolled out the country's first semi-high-speed train set popularly known as the 'Vande Bharat Express' with Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagging off the first train from New Delhi to Varanasi.

During the second week of October 2022, ICF achieved the distinction of having turned out 70,000 plus coaches since its inception in 1955, which is the highest by any passenger coach manufacturer in the world.

Earlier in the day, Vaishnaw unveiled a special train that would be run on heritage routes across the country.

He inspected a train modified as a steam locomotive train at the Dr MGR Central Railway Station here and said more such trains would be introduced on heritage routes in the coming months across the country.

Vaishnaw, on the occasion, also undertook a review meeting with the top officials of Southern Railway at its headquarters here, and discussed matters concerning safety, the progress of infrastructural and station redevelopment projects, speed enhancement works, and timetabling of trains, among others.

Southern Railway General Manager R N Singh gave a presentation on the performance of the zone that was commended by the Minister. Vaishnaw instructed the authorities to take up corrective action wherever it was required, a press release said.