Railway minister dismisses reports of delay in Vande Bharat sleeper trains over design
The Hindu
Railway Minister Vaishnaw clarifies design issues with Russian firm for manufacturing Vande Bharat sleeper trains.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has dismissed media reports claiming delay in starting the manufacturing process for Vande Bharat sleeper trains due to design clearance issues.
During a media interaction on Thursday (November 28, 2024), Mr. Vaishnaw said that design was never an issue with the Russian firm roped in to manufacture these train sets.
Earlier, a section of media quoting officials from the Russian company Transmashholding (TMH) reported that Indian Railways demanded toilets and a pantry car in the train which necessitated tweaking the trains' design.
The reports further said the firm addressed Railway Ministry's concerns with a change in design and sent it to the ministry for clearance, which, however, hasn't responded with its consent.
As per the contracts, the firm is supposed to manufacture 1,920 sleeper coaches.
However, ministry sources said these reports were baseless as the real issues were with regard to the limited manufacturing capabilities of the firm because in Russia, trains have less number of coaches as compared to India.
"The firm doesn't have experience to manufacture a train set of more than six or eight coaches. We had clearly told them that we will give them design of Vande Bharat to follow. What they need is more manufacturing teams," Mr. Vaishnaw said.
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