The newly-designed Vande Bharat trains being produced at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai are world-class and contain several innovative features, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday.
Speaking after inspecting the new prototype Vande Bharat express train rolled out at ICF and also witnessing the commissioning activities at the furnishing divisions of ICF, he said last year Prime Minister Narendra Modi set a target to his ministry to manufacture 75 trains on the 75th anniversary of India's independence.
Accordingly, 75 Vande Bharat express trains would be manufactured and deployed throughout the country before August 15 next year.
"They will cover the entire country. They will join the nation. I am very happy that Vande Bharat train has been manufactured by ICF within a short time and in good quality," the minister told reporters here.
"This is a world-class train. And some really innovative things have been incorporated in this train like automatic opening of doors, comfortable space in the driver's cabin for the loco pilots to operate," he said.
"From the users' point of view, this train has reclining chairs for passengers besides differently abled-friendly toilets," Mr Vaishnaw added.
"I am very proud that this train has been manufactured from the beautiful factory in Tamil Nadu. I am proud of the Tamil culture and language," he said.
On the testing process, the Union minister said the Vande Bharat train will be tested at a speed of 180 kmph and will traverse 50,000 km and the testing includes dynamic, static, load test and oscillation trials which will be carried out on different kind of situations.
After the trials, ICF will manufacture more such trains. As many as 475 such trains will be made in four years to cover all the states, he said after going around inspecting the interiors of the newly rolled out Vande Bharat coach.
The Union minister, who also holds the Communications and IT portfolio, participated in a tricolour rally taken out by the students of ICF Silver Jubilee School here as part of the 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav'.
At the ICF post office, Mr Vaishnaw inaugurated the sale of the national flag under the Centre's 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign. He made payment through UPI for the national tricolour and distributed the flags on the occasion.
"We all remember Mahakavi Subramania Bharati for his great sacrifice and for making us all remember our rich heritage. He made us recognise the importance of our national flag," the Union minister said at the Bharathiar Memorial, Triplicane, here, after garlanding his statue.
The 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign initiated by the Centre aims at making the public remember the national tricolour and also recollect the sacrifices of the noble souls during the freedom struggle, the minister who walked for some distance holding the national flag before arriving at the memorial, said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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