Industry Odisha Bureau, May 27: In a bid to make a mark overseas, especially in the urban markets there, by supplying indigenously-built high-tech and cost-effective trains running on standard-gauge rail tracks, India has reportedly geared up to build and export its already tried and okayed Vande Bharat model trains, but of standard-gauge versions used globally.
Accordingly, both the Indian Railways and the Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) have reportedly initiated their concerted efforts for designing such standard-gauge Vande Bharat trains for the exporting purpose since most of the urban-based rail networks are reportedly operating on standard-gauge rail tracks globally.
It has reportedly been claimed that some foreign countries like Latin America and Africa along with India’s neighboring countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal have evinced interests in importing such semi-high-speed Vande Bharat train models that could run on standard-gauge rail tracks.
However, the Vande Bharat models running at present in India reportedly run on broad-gauge rail tracks which ought to be upgraded to the standard-gauge versions for exports.
Need to be mentioned here that, the current Vande Bharat broad-gauge versions are being manufactured at Uttar Pradesh (UP)’s Raebareli-based Modern Coach Factory (MCF), Punjab’s Kapurthala-based Rail Coach Factory (RCF) and Tamil Nadu (TN)’s capital city Chennai-based Integral Coach Factory (ICF).
There are differences between the standard-gauge and broad-gauge trains. “While the standard-gauge has a track width of 1,435 mm (4 ft 8.5 in), the broad-gauge track has a width of 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in). Standard-gauge is widely used in Europe and America, and most of the foreign countries, while broad gauge is more common in countries like India and Russia. Broad-gauge tracks are built for heavy long-distance stability, while standard-gauge tracks are the narrower global norm optimized for urban metros and high-speed rail.”
