Indian Railways And Industry Embrace Growth Opportunities: Rail, Metro Segment Size Pegged At Rs 2 Lakh Crore In Next Seven Years

The growing demand for Vande Bharat train and Vande Metro is estimated to be over Rs 2 lakh crore in next seven years, according to the industry.

Indian Railways has issued a production plan of 102 Vande Bharat Rakes (35 in 2022-2023 and 67 in 2023-2024) as per Indian Railways design, within Indian Railways‘ production units at Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Rail Coach Factory and Modern Coach Factory.

“If all goes well, we will come out with a world class unmatched travel experience with the first prototype (of Vande Bharat sleeper train) within this financial year itself” said Shantanu Roy, chairman and managing director, BEML, adding that they are a partner to developing the first sleeper Vande Bharat trains with ICF and Railway Board.

Roy estimated that the total opportunity size for the rail and metro segment, that includes Vande Bharat trains and Metro tenders of Mumbai, Chennai and Patna, could be upwards of Rs 2 lakh crore in next seven years.

Roy was addressing the inaugural session of International Rail Conference themed ‘Innovation and Technology: Changing the Future of Railway’ being organised by Confederation of Indian Industry.

“Vande Bharat has been the game-changer for Indian commuter rail, and all of it started with Train-18,” Roy further said.

Railway Board secretary Milind Deouskar said that the Vande Bharat sleeper trains, and Vande Bharat metros would be launched soon.

“Vande Bharat as an innovation has been deeply appreciated by our customers and with that experience, their aspirations have grown. Keeping that in view we are planning Vande Bharat Sleepers, Vande Bharat Metro Trains, all of this to meet the through-put, speed, and convenience related expectations. Indian Railways is on a great journey of expansion,” said Deouskar.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw early this month had shared images of the concept Vande Bharat (sleeper version) train on social media, due for launch in 2024.

Each Vande Bharat Express sleeper train will be designed to achieve speeds of 160 km per hour and have 16 bogies, with an approximate capacity to accommodate 887 passengers.

A total 75 Vande Bharat rakes are planned as chair car version and remaining planned as sleeper version. Indian Railways has also planned to manufacture 400 Vande Bharat trains (sleeper version) of three different technologies, for which tenders have been floated to select technology partners for manufacturing within Indian Railways' production units.

In addition to the above, 8,000 Vande Bharat coaches have also been proposed under Budget 2023-24.

Both domestic and global players are bullish on the prospect of Make-in-India in rail sector, with some companies now planning to ‘design and develop’ in India and aim for exports.

“We have invested heavily in our Indian facilities in last 35 years and we would like to significantly expand that. And that means not only ‘manufacture and make in India, but also ‘design and develop’ in India. Over the last 10 years we have used the talent here in our centres to develop digital products for the Indian market but for the whole worldwide market. We want to harness that power to export more and more” said Dr Jonathan Paddison, Member, Board of Directors, Knorr-Bremse Asia Pacific (Holding) Ltd.

Indian Railways’ focus on completion and commissioning of dedicated freight corridor for debottlenecking of congested routes; the launch of semi-high-speed trains — the world class Vande Bharat Trains, expansion of railway tracks and upgradation of railway stations was commended by Dipankar Ghosh, Chairman, CII Railway Transport and Equipment Division.

Ghosh said that the industry is proud of Indian Railways' rapid progress on 100 per cent electrification and carbon neutral goal by 2030 and added that Make-in-India along with this government’s focus on execution, is proving to be a game changer both for Indian Railways and the industry.