Source: https://www.livemint.com/news/india/railways-to-roll-out-vande-metro-train-by-2023-for-middle-class-and-poor-union-minister-ashwinivaishnaw-11671381597630.html
Publisher: Live Mint
Ashwini Vaishnaw, the minister for railroads and communications, announced on Sunday that the Railways is producing the Vande Metro train to replace the ones created in the 1950s and 1960s. He spoke on a plethora of issues concerning infrastructural progress of railways in the country.
Vande Metro tains
“These Vande Metro train will be manufactured in such large numbers that across the country, the trains which were of 1950s and 1960s designs will all be replaced,” he added.
The Union Minister emphasised that the middle class and the poor would receive service from these Vande Metro and that the high-end clientele was not the main focus. The Prime Minister wants railways to make very big transformative change in every Indian’s life, Vaishnaw said.
Hydrogen-based trains
To a question on the hydrogen-based trains, the Minister said like Vande Bharat, the Indian engineers are designing it.
He said that the first hydrogen train to be built and designed entirely domestically would debut in December 2023. “We are designing, and the design should be out by anywhere by May or June — We are designing a world-class Vande Metro which will be a great leap forward,” Vaishnaw said in an interview with reporters.
PTI reported him saying, “The design process is already going on and we should be able to roll out the first hydrogen train in the country by December 2023.”
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Next year, the Railways would achieve laying 16 km to 17 km tracks a day, though the Prime Minister has set a target of 20 kilometres of laying railway lines a day, the Minister said.
New technologies for railways
The Union Minister stated that the launched a new startup initiative when discussing acquiring new technologies. About 800 startups applied, and only 50 or so were chosen, he said. aysRailw will now help these startups all the way from the idea to the finished product.
“Once the product is successful, we will give them funds for four years and keep them in order for four years so that they can really stabilise and use those products within the railways first, and then globally they should be able to take those products,” he added.
Bullet trains
He stated that work is progressing at full speed on the Mumbai to Ahmedabad bullet train corridor. Given the vibration that a bullet train will produce, operating the technology is extremely complex, but Indian engineers have mastered the technology, according to Vaishnaw.
After the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor is successfully completed, the Railways will take on 11 or 12 additional corridors across the nation.
