The Vande Bharat Assembly Line 

New Delhi: The hype surrounding the rollout of the third Vande Bharat from the state-owned and Chennai-based Integral Coach Factory (ICF) is understandable.

After a lapse of more than three years, an improved version of the state-of-the-art Vande Bharat train will be seen dashing across a new route: The 490 km stretch connecting Mumbai to Ahmedabad. This semi-high speed - the third of the series -has successfully completed trial runs at 115 kmph, while trials at the higher speed of 180 kmph are currently being conducted on the 261 km long Kota-Nagda section. While the third train will be put into operation shortly, the fourth train set is scheduled to roll out in September itself.

Seventy-five Vande Bharat trains - previously called the T-18 - are targeted to be manufactured in the next 75 weeks. Even as these stiff targets are only half achieved, India will have a good number of these self-propelled Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) speeding along the countryside by next year.

The Narendra Modi government can be faulted for much else; not on the scale and grandness of infrastructure plans. Indian Railways have called bids worth approximately Rs. 50,000 crores, inviting private and public parties to build 200 Vande Bharat equivalent trains, 100 aluminum train sets, and another 100 Aluminum push-pull trains. These will be built in IR's factories and workshops. Earlier, orders had been placed to build the first lot of 100 Vande Bharat trains. The third take that has now turned outcomes as part of this order.

Concerns of Rail Engineers

While the focus has remained riveted on the glitzy trains in the making, a matching and much-required thrust on what are called "downstream activities" have appeared to be a low-priority area for the Indian Railways. One example: Progress on track upgrade to enable train speeds above 160 kmph for the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah sectors - sanctioned in 2017 - has remained excruciatingly slow.

"What is also baffling is that IR has announced plans to manufacture Aluminium-bodied trains with a speed capability of 200 kmph, but India does not have the tracks to test these trains at 220 kmph or to run them at 200 kmph", pointed out former ICF General Manager Sudhanshu Mani- known as the T-18 inventor. Also, Mani said, the tender conditions should have made it mandatory for private companies to share their design work with Indian manufacturers such as the ICF.

"In the absence of such clauses, the "Atmanirbhar Bharat" philosophy has seemingly been compromised in the broader sense". Former Railway Board member Subodh Jain echoed similar thoughts: "The success of the Vande Bharat depends on a 360-degree approach, which is woefully lacking. There has been little emphasis on related - and equally critical- aspects such as taking up track structure improvements, upgrading the platforms, and setting up rolling stock maintenance facilities. Train routes have also not been finalised. These are not good signs".

Will the Vande Bharats be under-utilised?

Conservative estimates are that approximately 100 Vande Bharat trains will roll out in the next two years. Half of these will replace the 25 existing Shatabdis - and an equal number of fast intercity trains. In the absence of a matching infrastructure, the remaining Vande Bharat trains will possibly be run at slower speeds on insignificant routes.

The bigger worry is this: In its overriding hurry to manufacture big numbers of the Chair Car variants or Day trains, the plans to build the Sleeper variants are apparently not being taken as a high priority area. Previous to the discontinuation of the Railway Budget, the ministry had followed the practice of introducing new trains on the basis of a traffic demand study on specified routes.

"The traffic demand studies were not always followed in a letter or in spirits, as new trains or stoppages were often announced indiscriminately by the then Railways Ministers. But, at least, some kind of a system existed on the basis of the demand and supply principle", a ministry official said, while adding: "The Vande Bharat has been taken up without a traffic demand assessment".

The National Rail Plan 2050 has come up with broad traffic projections along with specific recommendations on rail modernisation needs. However, projections made in such long-term policy documents have often proved to be inaccurate. Sections of rail engineers say that the Vande Bharat rollout should have been slow-paced, instead of the fast and furious approach that has been adopted.