Prime Minister Narendra Modi today (February 15, 2019) flagged off India’s first engine-less train, the Vande Bharat Express, from the New Delhi Railway Station. The much awaited Vande Bharat Express that will run between New Delhi and Varanasi has been named so in an acknowledgement of its Made-in-India status. The semi-high speed train is set to run at a maximum speed of 160 kilometre per hour.
The 16-coach train was built in 18 months at a cost of Rs 97 crore by the Integral Coach Factory in Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli. The first locomotive-less train in the country is being seen as a successor to the 30-year-old premier Shatabdi Express. The fully air-conditioned train will stop at Kanpur and Allahabad and will have two executive chair cars. Officials have said the gleaming blue-nosed train comes fitted with amenities at par with the best in the world. It would have on-board wi-fi, GPS-based passenger information system, touch-free bio-vacuum toilets, LED lighting, mobile charging points and a climate control system that adjusts the temperature according to occupancy and weather.
