In a proud moment for the Indian Railways and Indians, the semi-high speed train 'Vande Bharat' has broken its own speed record, reaching 0-100 kilometres per hour in just 52 seconds.
"Vande Bharat Express sets new record, reaches 100 kmph in just 52 seconds," tweeted Union Minister of State for Railways Raosaheb Patil Danve.
Billed as India's fastest train, it reached 0 to 100 in 54.6 seconds recently. The maximum speed of the third Vande Bharat train is 180 kilometres per hour. Also, the Vande Bharat train beat the Japanese bullet train, which reaches 100 kilometres per hour in 55 seconds.
The speed trials of the Vande Bharat trains were conducted on the Kota-Nagda section by the Indian Railways. Currently, two Vande Bharat trains are operational, running between Delhi and Katra and Delhi and Varanasi.
The Railways claims that 75 Vande Bharat trains will be up and running by August 15, 2023, in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement. The ICF has the capacity to manufacture six to seven Vande Bharat rakes (trains) every month and attempts are on to scale this number to 10.
Apart from this, the Vande Bharat trains will also be manufactured at the Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthala and the Modern Coach Factory in Rae Bareli.
In the new Vande Bharat train, the safety and convenience features for passengers have been improved. The biggest safety addition in the upgraded Vande Bharat trains will be the support of the train collision avoidance system (TCAS) or Kavach to prevent signal passing at danger (SPAD) cases and unsafe situations arising due to overspeeding and train collisions in station areas.
The other safety features include fire detection alarms in coaches and a fire detection suppression system in cubicles and toilets. Passengers will also have access to more emergency push buttons and emergency talk-back units, through which they can speak to the loco pilot.
The trains will also have a centralised coach monitoring system, through which all electrical components and climate control will be monitored on a real-time basis by a designated person.
(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)