New Delhi: Rites Limited, a Navratna company and Central public sector undertaking under the ministry of railways, will conduct an independent safety assessment (ISA) of Vande Bharat sleeper trains.
An Italian State Railways Group company, ItalCertifier, will assist Rites Ltd in the safety assessment exercise, officials said, adding that the India’s prime transport infrastructure consultancy has won a contract for the purpose.
Also Read: Sleeper version of Vande Bharat to be rolled out in Feb next year
Rites Ltd, in a statement, said that it has been awarded by Integral Coach Factory (ICF)-Chennai, a production unit under the Ministry of Railways. “The consortium will conduct design reviews, final safety acceptance assessments, and review test results,” the statement noted.
The Rites Ltd is the only ISA-certified CPSE. With the new assignment, the CPSE has plunged in to a new area of operation and claimed that it is committed to advancing ISA works by leveraging its expertise in the quality assurance segment.
Also Read: Non-AC version of Vande Bharat exp to be launched from Patna
Excited about the new role, a senior official of Rites Ltd said that company has an experience of more than five decades in transport infrastructure and successfully executed projects in over 55 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.
Rites Ltd teams up with Italian firm to conduct ISA
The company has teamed up with an Italian company to carry out the ISA of Vande Bharat, as it is a Make in India product. The Indian Railways launched India’s first indigenous semi high-speed train, Vande Bharat Express in February 2019. The first Vande Bharat Express train ran on the New Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi route.
Also Read: Patna-Ranchi Vande Bharat exp’s trial run courts controversy
With improvement mechanism to power the train, currently operating version of Vande Bharat Express can run up to a maximum speed of 160 kmph. Like Shatabdi, it has two classes—executive and chair car—but Vande Bharat has better amenities for passengers. Vande Bharat train has been designed and manufactured at Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, a Railways production unit.
All coaches are equipped with automatic doors; GPS-based audio-visual passenger information system, on-board hotspot Wi-Fi for entertainment purposes, and very comfortable seating. The executive class also has rotating chairs. The Vande Bharat Express has 16 air-conditioned coaches of which two are executive class coaches. The total seating capacity is 1,128 passengers. In some section, it runs with eight coaches with one executive bogey.
Also Read: Shatabdis, Jan Shatabdis can match speed of Vande Bharat exp
Vande Bharat Sleeper express likely to run from Sept
Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had in March said that said Vande Bharat sleeper trains will start running in six months. The minister said 10 Vande Bharat sleeper trains will start trial run in the next four-five months following which the commercial operations will begin.
The sleeper coaches of Vande Bharat are being manufactured at BEML campus in Bengaluru. The minister said the Railways has placed orders for 100 more Amrit Bharat (non-A/c sleeper) trains in view of rising demand.
Also Read: PM to flag off 1st saffron Vande Bharat among 9 trains on Sept 24
Vande Bharat sleeper was scheduled be launched in March
As per the railway officials, the Indian Railways had proposed launching the sleeper version of Vande Bharat in March this year. However, the production of coaches were not in line with the plan due to multiple factors.
So far launched 41 Vande Bharat express trains and two Amrit Bharat trains have been launched for commercial operation.
