Over 1,000 Amrit Bharat Trains To Be Made In Coming Years: Railway Minister

India will manufacture at least 1,000 new-generation Amrit Bharat trains in the coming years while work is also underway to make trains that can run at 250 kmph, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday.

In an exclusive interview to PTI-Videos, he also said the Railways has already started working on the export of Vande Bharat trains and the first export is expected within the next five years.

While speaking on the transformational initiatives taken by the Railways in the last 10 years of the Narendra Modi government, he said the world's highest railway bridge (Chenab bridge) and the first under-river water tunnel (for the Kolkata metro) are some of the significant technological advancements that happened in the rail sector.

Ashwini Vaishnaw also spoke on the beginning of the construction of India's first under-sea tunnel between Mumbai and Thane as part of the ongoing Bullet train project and said there are about only five countries in the world that have such technologies.

The 21-km-long proposed tunnel between Mumbai and Thane will have a 9.7-km passing through the sea, 54 metres below its surface.

Ashwini Vaishnaw also delved into Railways' fare structure and its service to the general public. "We carry about 700 crore people every year, 2.5 crore practically every day. The fare structure is such that if the cost of carrying a person is Rs 100, we charge Rs 45. So we give 55 per cent discount to every person who travels by the railways on an average," Vaishnaw said.

Talking about affordability, the minister said, "We have designed Amrit Bharat which is a world-class train. It provides 1,000 km of travel at a price of only Rs 454. That is the kind of affordability that has been provided." India will manufacture at least 1,000 new-generation Amrit Bharat trains in the coming years and the work to make trains that can run at a speed of 250 kmph was on, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday.

Ashwini Vaishnaw provided a break-up of the total annual expenditures of the Railways and said that expenditure on pensions, salaries, energy bill and lease-interest payments are Rs 55,000 crore, 97,000 crore, 40,000 crore and Rs 32,000 crore respectively.

Another Rs 12,000 crore goes on maintenance and all get combined to become about Rs 2.40 lakh-crore. "We have been able to meet all these expenses because the team has been working very hard under the prime minister's guidance," Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

"Today, railway stations are very different from what they were 10 years back. Stations and trains are cleaner and every train has a bio-toilet," he said.

According to the railway minister, introduction of new technology has made trains like Vande Bharat highly popular among youths.

"Practically, every week one Vande Bharat train is getting inducted in the fleet. We will be manufacturing at least 400 to 500 of these trains in the coming few years itself," Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

On track capacity expansion, he said, "Last year, we added 5,200 kms of new track. This year, we will add 5500 kms of new track. It is like adding Switzerland to the country every year. That's the pace at which work is being done." Outlining passengers' safety initiatives, Ashwini Vaishnaw said that in the last 10 years, more than Rs 1.27 lakh-crore have been invested on passengers' safety and close to 7000 kms of worn out tracks have been replaced every year.

He highlighted the features of Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system Kavach, being implemented across the rail network in India, and said that all countries started implementing ATP around the 1980s but our governments of that time didn't focus on this important passenger safety feature.

Ashwini Vaishnaw also blamed the previous government in Maharashtra for the delay in the implementation of the bullet train project. "The construction on the Gujarat section from Vapi to Ahmedabad was going on a torrid pace but we couldn't start the section from Mumbai to Vapi because Mr Thackrey's government never permitted us. We got all the permits after the government changed." He dismissed suggestions that the Railways is turning to cater more to the affluent class. "Our focus is on non-air conditioned coaches because our premier customer is low-income families. Out of 67,000 coaches that we have, two-thirds are non-air conditioned."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)