Chennai, August 13: The newly-designed Vande Bharat trains being produced at Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai are world-class and contain several innovative features, said Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Speaking after inspecting the new prototype Vande Bharat express train rolled out at ICF & also witnessing commissioning activities at furnishing divisions of ICF, he said last year PM Modi set a target to his ministry to manufacture 75 trains on 75th anniversary of India's independence.
Accordingly, 75 Vande Bharat express trains would be manufactured and deployed throughout the country before August 15 next year. "They will cover the entire country. They will join the nation. I am very happy that Vande Bharat train has been manufactured by ICF within a short time and in good quality," the minister said.
"This is a world-class train. And some really innovative things have been incorporated in this train like automatic opening of doors, comfortable space in the driver's cabin for the loco pilots to operate," he said.
"From the users' point of view, this train has reclining chairs for passengers besides differently abled-friendly toilets," Vaishnaw added. "I am very proud that this train has been manufactured from the beautiful factory in Tamil Nadu. I am proud of the Tamil culture and language," he said.
On the testing process, the Union Minister said Vande Bharat train will be tested at a speed of 180 kmph and will traverse 50,000 km and the testing includes dynamic, static, load test and oscillation trials which will be carried out on different kind of situations.
ICF will manufacture more such trains. As many as 475 such trains will be made in 4 years to cover all states, he said after going around inspecting interiors of the newly rolled out Vande Bharat coach.
The Minister participated in a tricolour rally taken out by the students of ICF Silver Jubilee School here as part of the 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav'.
At ICF post office, Vaishnaw inaugurated the sale of the national flag under the Centre's 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign.
The 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign initiated by the Centre aims at making the public remember the national tricolour and also recollect the sacrifices of the noble souls during the freedom struggle, the minister who walked for some distance holding the national flag before arriving at the memorial, said.