False promises of CRB and Railway Board are finally exposed

Admin

44 Vande Bharat trains could be ready only by 2027, five years later than planned deadline

According to coach manufacturer ICF’s estimates, the whole process to roll out these 44 Vande Bharat train sets could take up to 78 months to complete.

The Indian Railways has so far maintained that the planned 44 train sets (also called rakes) of Vande Bharat Express will be introduced in 2021-22, but an internal estimate by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) shows that this could take six-and-a-half years to roll out.

In a letter to the Railway Board dated 14 July, the ICF, which manufactures railway coaches for India, said it would take 28 months to introduce the prototype rakes into commercial service.

Additionally, it would take six months to start the series production, and subsequently, the supply of series equipment of each of the 44 rakes would take one month each.

In total, the whole process would thus take up to 78 months to complete, according to the ICF’s estimates. This puts the estimated date for the rollout of all these train sets at 2027.

Sources told that even though earlier this month, the Railway Board told the PMO that the rest of the 44 trains will be completed in two years, it is next to “impossible” to achieve this target.

“It is a morale booster for the ICF to be picked for the production of these trains over any other global player, but it is next to impossible to achieve the two year target … Even the ICF timeline is a conservative estimate,” an official said on condition of anonymity.

Railway Ministry spokesperson D.J. Narain said the Railways is working according to the schedule, and they cannot comment unless they see the ICF letter.

Vande Bharat Train sets

The original version of Vande Bharat rakes — also called the Train-18 — had taken just 18 months to cover the stages of conceptualisation, design, manufacture and rollout, and two of these rakes — built at a cost of approximately Rs 100 crore — have been providing trouble-free service on two routes: Delhi-Varanasi and Delhi-Katra, this is a record of domestic engineering and expertise. However, the production of the rest of the 44 rakes has been mired in controversy.

The project has also faced delays since the earlier proposal to import the complete train sets from foreign manufacturers had led to opposition from political parties, senior officials and other stakeholders, who had criticised the Railways for going global when there was indigenous technology available in-house.

The turf war between the mechanical and the electrical engineering departments had resulted in allegations of favouritism, safety compromises and other flaws, which, in turn, led to the transfer of top officials from the team.

As a result, there have been several delays in the project, with the latest being the third tender floated by the government in December 2019 with changes meant to create a level-playing field to bring down prices.

Repeated promises to make more Vande Bharat trains have fallen proven hollow. Now, the train loves by PM Narendra Modi are delayed till 2027.

Who is responsible? Minister for Railways Piyush Goyal should look for a new CRB immediately, it’s a need of the hour.

Source: The Print

#vandebharat #train #crb #piyushgoyal #mr #railwayboard #PMOIndia #PMModi