What Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not tell you about Vande Bharat trains!

HDERABAD: Curious? Hold your breath. All ‘Vande Bharat’ semi-highspeed trains are manufactured at Kondakal village of Ranga Reddy district in Telangana. One such Vande Bharat Express is being launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (April 8, 2023) from Secunderabad to Tirupati.

When the Narendra Modi Government failed to fulfil the promise made to Telangana as part of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 that a rail coach factory would be set up in Kazipet, Telangana State Government did not take it lying down.

When the repeated requests to fulfil the promise made on the floor of the Parliament met with hostility and a rail coach factory was sanctioned for Maharashtra, Telangana Industries Minister K T Rama Rao (KTR) started working his way proactively. He roped in the private manufacturers of trains to set up their unit near Hyderabad. The State Government signed a memorandum of understanding with Medha Servo Drives on October 27, 2017.

KTR himself laid the foundation stone for India’s largest private sector rail coach factory of Medha Servo Drives on August 14, 2020, just after the first wave of Covid pandemic.

The private manufacturing unit created an ecosystem for the making of rail coaches. The company makes chasis of the locomotives (bogies), trainsets, electronics and propulsion unit for the entire train, highly placed sources in Medha Servo Drives told NewsTAP.

In fact, Railway Board accorded approval for making the semi-highspeed trains in 2017. The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai had taken upon itself the responsibility to manufacture the train and rolled out a train in 2018. It was launched between New Delhi and Varanasi in February 2019 and it was christened as ‘Vande Bharat”. The project was expeditiously executed in 18 months and a mere four months time was taken to complete its testing.

Medha Servo Drives, which made the trainsets, electronics and bogies, was roped in to set up their manufacturing unit in Telangana by KTR and all permissions were sanctioned at a breakneck speed. In February 2021, the Hyderabad-based company secured orders for manufacturing of 44 Vande Bharat trains and is rolling out the trains on demand. Medha Servo Drives has a technical partnership with Switzerland-based manufacturer Stadler Rail.

Now all “Vande Bharat” trains are manufactured by Medha Servo at Kondakal to serve the needs of the country. It is this fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may not tell you for obvious reasons.

While the stainless exterior (for now, its stainless steel which will eventually be in aluminum) of the train is assembled by the ICF in Chennai, the forged wheels of the train are imported from European countries. With a view to keeping the train light, the railway authorities designed them in such a manner that the aerodynamic train body is manufactured with fibre. Though this gets frequently damaged even for a small hit by a buffalo, the Indian Railways has provided replacements at the stations where the train stops to quickly replace the damaged parts and let the train go.

It's the pride of Telangana that is now hurtling past many stations and many other trains at a velocity of 160 km per hour. In fact, during testing, it had achieved a maximum speed of 180 kmph. But considering the capacity of the rails, the speed was restricted to 160 kmph.

The Vande Bharat trains would eventually be made to achieve a speed of 200 kmph, once the tracks are calibrated to meet this.