Indian Railways to launch 10 Vande Bharat trains connecting 40 cities

The Indian Railways is planning to roll out 10 new indigenous semi-high speed Vande Bharat trains by August 2022. As per the reports, these trains will be connecting around 40 cities by that time.

Vande Bharat trains are self-designed, semi-high speed train sets of India, which take shorter time to complete journeys as compared to Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains, and also matches the international standards.Reportedly, the government is planning to eventually add 100 Vande Bharat trains, and is working towards adding a maximum number of such trains by 2024. The Railway Minister recently reviewed the semi-high and high-speed rail projects that have been planned in India. He also directed the concerned officials to advance the roll out of the said trains and link at least 40 cities by August 2022, and maintained that the upgrade needs to showcase that the national rail services have been upgraded.
Medha Servo Drives Ltd is the firm that has been given the responsibility to supply the electrical systems for the development of the said trains in January this year. The firm has now been directed to expedite their work so that at least two prototypes can be launched by March 2022 following all the trails.

Reports have it that the Railway Board held a meeting that was attended by board members, general managers of production units, and other engineers to chalk out the plan of rolling out the said trains.
As of now, two Vande Bharat trains are running on the tracks. One was launched on February 15, 2019, which began its commercial run from February 17, 2019, connecting the Delhi–Varanasi route via Kanpur and Prayagraj, while the second train was launched in 2020, connecting Delhi and Katra.