Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronic & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday (July 26) informed that the utilization of Vande Bharat trains has reached 99.60% during 2023-24. The minister also highlighted the growing popularity and efficiency of high-speed trains among passengers.
In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Vaishnaw said, “In the current financial year 2023-24, the overall utilization of Vande Bharat trains has been recorded at an outstanding 99.60%.”
According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Railways, Zonal railways had been delegated power to introduce discounts up to a maximum of 25% of basic fare in AC chair car and Executive class in order to optimize utilization of accommodation.
The statement also added that fare rationalization is a continuous process by the Indian Railways to optimize utilization of travel accommodation in trains.
50 Vande Bharat trains introduced on Indain Railways network
The Indian Railways have introduced as many as 50 Vande Bharat Express trains on its network as of July 21, 2023. Indian Railways has introduced Vande Bharat trains, which have higher speed potential.
The Vande Bharat Express trains represent a remarkable achievement for India. These semi-high speed trains are indigenously developed and automated train units.
Built to run at a speed of 180 kmph, these blue and white colour trains have been capped at 130 kmph for commercial operations due to track conditions.
9910 km track length commissioned under vision 2024
According to the statement issued by the Railways ministry, a total 251 Railway infrastructure projects (76 New Line, 19 Gauge Conversion and 156 Doubling), covering total length of 29,147 km, costing 4.92 lakh crore have been commissioned under vision 2024 as of April 1, 2023.
Out of these, 9,910 km track length has been commissioned upto March 2023 and an expenditure of 2.45 lakh crore has been incurred.
This covers the entire country including those falling fully or partly in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. The statement noted that these tracks are currently in planning/sanction/construction stages.
