Indian Railways is working on a revolutionary mission to make the future travel high-tech and superfast, which is going to prove to be a game changer in history. Under the Vande Bharat 3.0 mission, the Railway Ministry has given in-principle approval to make the entire structure of all future Vande Bharat sleeper and high-speed versions with 100 per cent indigenous aluminum body.
With this masterstroke of Railways, India’s dependence on Europe or other developed countries for body and special components of trains will completely end. Let us know what new mathematics of speed this indigenous formula of Railways is going to write on the tracks.
Weight will reduce by 40%
At present, all the Vande Bharat trains running on the tracks of the country are made of stainless steel. According to technical experts, using indigenous aluminum instead of stainless steel will reduce the total weight of the train by 30 to 40 percent. Loss of weight will have a direct impact on the pickup and speed of the train. This new Vande Bharat with aluminum body will be capable of reaching a top speed of 160 to 180 kilometers per hour in just a few seconds. Apart from this, due to the light body, power consumption will be very low, which will result in huge savings of crores of rupees of revenue to Indian Railways every year.
Big drop in manufacturing cost by up to 15%
A senior railway official said that till now special grades of aluminum had to be imported from foreign vendors, due to which the cost of making trains was becoming very high. But now ‘local’ welding, designing and assembling is being promoted within the country. Due to domestic work under Make in India, the total manufacturing cost of a train set is expected to decline by 10 to 15 percent, the direct benefit of which can be passed on to the passengers in future in the form of cheaper fares.
This technology will become lifeline for coastal areas
This technology is no less than a boon for trains running in coastal areas like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Odisha. Due to the moist sea breeze, steel trains are prone to rusting very quickly. Since aluminum does not rust, these trains will remain completely safe and shiny for 35 to 40 years even on coastal tracks.
Kavach 4.0 will be available in-built for security
Along with speed, Railways has also kept safety standards at the highest level. All these new trains of Vande Bharat 3.0 will have the country’s most advanced security shield Kavach 4.0 in-built. This system has the ability to apply automatic brakes in case of fog or any human error. Additionally, the aluminum shell of the train is being designed under the stringent European standards of crash-worthiness (EN 15227), so that passengers do not suffer any scratches in case of any untoward incident.
Testing and big target of 400 trains by August 2027
Railways has also fixed the timeline for this mega project. It is targeted to complete the testing of this aluminum technology for the indigenous Bullet Train (B28) by August 2027. At the same time, in the vision of the next 5 years, Indian Railways intends to put at least 400 Vande Bharat trains on the track with this shining and light aluminum body, which will present a new and lofty picture of self-reliant India.
SK Sharma is a content writer who writes on news, entertainment, and lifestyle topics. She has over four years of experience and is known for conveying information in simple and clear language.
