Union Budget 2022-23: India to manufacture 400 new Vande Bharat trains made of lightweight aluminium

According to announcements made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Union Budget on Tuesday, India has decided to manufacture 400 new, more efficient Vande Bharat trains in the next three years, taking a decisive step toward engine-less propulsion systems for passenger trains in the future.

Based on the reports, the 400 trains would be in addition to the 102 Vande Bharat trains currently in the works.

The Railways would also establish "One Station One Product," which will leverage local food transported on trains, with a focus on farmers, Sitharaman stated. The Rails will roll out postal railways for parcels as part of their new product launch, giving a boost to a new business field.

“400 new-generation Vande Bharat trains with better efficiency to be brought in during the next 3 years; 100 PM Gati Shakti Cargo terminals to be developed during next 3 years and implementation of innovative ways for building metro systems,” said Sitharaman in Lok Sabha.

The new Vande Bharat trains are the centrepiece of her presentation, which is part of a bigger, multi-modal plan for infrastructure development under PM Gati Shakti's umbrella. According to insiders, the 400 trains would be primarily composed of lightweight aluminium rather than steel, marking a break from India's usual use of metal for its coaches. Officially, the Railways have remained silent on the subject.

The paperwork for aluminium coaches had already begun before the Budget, with the Railway Board's senior executives calculating the advantages over the present steel coaches. Because each train set is composed of aluminium, it is roughly 50 tonnes lighter and uses far less energy than steel equivalents. Each train set will cost around Rs 25 crore higher than existing trains, which cost roughly Rs 106 crore for each set of 16 cars.

However, when inflation and other associated costs of the current steel-made Vande Bharat sets are factored in, the aluminium ones come out marginally higher, whereas the money saved through reduced energy consumption is much higher, resulting in higher revenue potential for Railways, officials said.

Vande Bharat is the name given to India's semi-high-speed rail system, which consists of 16 self-propelled carriages that do not require an engine to operate. This is known as distributed traction power, and it is rapidly replacing locomotive-hauled trains across the world.

“Any new technology we bring in should be viewed from the perspective of passenger… reduced noise levels, reduced vibration, better safety and experience. That kind of Vande Bharat we will bring,” added Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw .

“The first version of Vande Bharat is already running. Version 2 will be (in) production by August-September this year. The target given today will be next and it will be an upgrade. Like mobile phones come with new and better versions, this technology will also get better with each version,” added Ashwini Vaishnaw.

This year, the Finance Ministry has allocated Rs 2.45 lakh crore for railway capital investment, with roughly Rs 1.08 lakh crore coming from Extra Budgetary Resources. According to Budget papers, Railways set a capital spending goal of Rs 2.15 lakh crore last year, which it will be able to meet by the end of the current year.

“The increased allocation will be used for safety and capacity augmentation through super-critical and critical projects,” stated Vaishnaw.

According to Revised Estimates, Railways expects to end this fiscal year with an Operating Ratio of 98.93 percent, which is lower than the 96.15 percent predicted in Budget Estimates last year. Over the next several years, the rolling stock programme might see projects costing over Rs 1 lakh crore, including the production of new Vande Bharat train sets, new high-performance freight locomotives, and other items.

The national transporter expects to earn over Rs 2.4 lakh crore this year, up roughly Rs 38,000 crore from the previous year. The Railways expects to generate Rs 58,500 crore in the passenger business, up by Rs 14,000 crore from the previous fiscal, based on a recovery of its passenger revenue, which has been impacted since 2020 owing to the epidemic.

Railways have set a lofty goal of 1,475 million tonnes of freight for next year. Railways have surpassed its Budget predictions for this year in the freight industry. While it was expected to handle freight of Rs 1.37 lakh crore this year, it now expects to transact business worth Rs 1.45 lakh crore in Revised Estimates. It intends to increase this sum to Rs 1.65 lakh crore in the following fiscal year.

The Railways is currently installing 44 Vande Bharat trains to have them functioning on at least 75 routes by August 15, 2023. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his Independence Day address that 75 Vande Bharat trains will connect different sections of the country by 2023.