Kochi: The Ministry of Railways is mulling the conversion of two existing Jan Shatabdi Express trains bound for Kozhikode and Kannur from Thiruvananthapuram into Vande Bharat Express trains.
The ministry had earlier decided to introduce Vande Bharat trains on the routes of Jan Shatabdi and Tejas trains.
Vande Bharat trains are expensive to travel compared to Tejas and Jan Shatabdi trains. So, there is widespread apprehension whether the regular passengers of the two existing Jan Shatabdi trains will spend more from their pockets to travel in the AC Chair Car coaches of Vande Bharat trains.
A section of the rail passengers are in favour of running the new Vande Bharat trains on the Kochi-Bangalore and Thiruvananthapuram-Mangalore routes instead of converting the existing Jan Shatabdi and Tejas trains to Vande Bharat trains.
A very limited number of stops are allotted for Vande Bharat trains. The two trains currently in operation are the 757-km New Delhi-Varanasi train with only two stops and the 655-km New Delhi-Vaishno Devi Katra service with just three stops.
The Jan Shatabdi Express, which is a pocket-friendly version of the Shatabdi Express, has AC Chair Car, Second-Class Seating and Unreserved classes. Its rakes are built at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai. Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) rake is used for Vande Bharat Express.
Construction of rakes
Meanwhile, the Railway Board has asked its Mechanical Department to set up enough repairing work facilities across the country in order to grant more number of Vande Bharat trains to various Railway Zones in August, 2023.
But, there is no clarity yet on whether the construction work of the rakes for the new trains would be completed within the deadline stipulated by the ministry.
The import of the wheels for the two trains announced is getting delayed due to the Ukraine-Russia war.
Two Vande Bharat trains in new design are under construction at the ICF. The work on the first rake is expected to be finished by June.
The Railways gave contract for the construction of 44 trains to the Hyderabad-based Medha Servo Drives and 58 trains to 7 other companies. The ministry is planning to introduce 35 trains during this fiscal year.