Vande Bharat Train Manufacturing Faces Bogie Supply Crunch

Racing against time, the Railways is stepping up efforts to roll out as many Vande Bharat trains every month to meet the target of 75 such trains by August 2023, a task seems to be quite challenging with short supply of bogie.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set a target to make 75 Vande Bharat trains on the seventy-fifth year of India’s independence.

While the fifth Vande Bharat train is expected to be ready by 10 November, till now only four Vande Bharat trains have come out of ICF, Chennai.

According to the original roll out plan, five trains were scheduled to be manufactured in November while seven trains were to be ready in December.

An all-out effort is being made to roll out another Vande Bharat train in the last week of November. Currently 250 staff are being deployed round the clock for the furnishing job of the Vande Bharat coaches, according to the ICF.

However, all 32 bogies required for fifth Vande Bharat are yet to reach ICF Chennai. While some bogies are arriving this week, rest are expected to arrive from Hyderabad on 23 October.

The 16-coach train requires 32 bogies to be a complete trainset.

A bogie consisting of wheel disc, axle, braking system and traction motor among others are crucial for manufacturing the coach.

Besides, wheels from Ukraine, axles are coming from China, brake system from Germany and window screen from Europe.

While seats were also earlier procured from Europe, now domestic players are involved in making Vande Bharat seats.

There are many components required for manufacturing of Vande Bharat that are in limited supply. Since it is a new concept, domestic players have not developed the adequate capacity to meet the demand, said a senior ICF official.

For example, there are limited sources available for mouldings for giving interior finishing of the coaches.

Meanwhile, the Railways is going ahead with setting up eight maintenance depots for Vande Bharat trains across the country including Sabarmati and Shakur Basti at an estimated cost of Rs 250 crore.

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