You have to wait longer for the 2nd Vande Bharat Express to be rolled out! Here's why

New Delhi: You will have to wait a little longer for the second Vande Bharat Express to be rolled out in the country. Indian Railways has postponed the launch of the second rake due to upcoming general elections. The train which was supposed to be rolled out in April is now expected to be launched post elections in June or July.

The semi high-speed self-propelled train which is manufactured by Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, is the first made-in-India self-propelled train. The train was manufactured in just 18 months. 

A Business Standard report quoted an official saying, "The second set of Train 18 will not be launched now. There will be no new trains during election time. In case of starting summer specials and some festival trains, the (Railway) Board will take special clearances from the Election Commission."

It may be noted that the first Vande Bharat Express was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February this year from new Delhi. The second set of trains was expected to be operational in April. However, the launch has been postponed after Lok Sabha poll notifications.

Another source told the business daily, "As per the production programme issued by the Railway Board, this includes the second train coming out after the elections and third by October this year. After October, ICF will make one train every alternate month till March 2020 and one rake every month from April 2020."

According to the Ministry of Railways earlier this year, Modern Coach Factory (MCF), Raebareli which has been a shining example of 'Make in India', will also manufacture more Vande Bharat Express train sets in the coming months. 

Worth mentioning here is that the Vande Bharat train is equipped with modern facilities and world-class amenities like automatic doors with sliding footsteps, CCTV cameras, LED lights, wifi entertainment system, rotating chairs in executive class, GPS based passenger information system, bio-vacuum toilets and more. The 16-coach long train has 14 chair car coaches and 2 Executive class coaches. 

The train currently covers a distance of 769 kilometres from New Delhi Railway Station to Varanasi Junction in about eight hours at a speed of 130 Kmph. It only halts at two stations -- Allahabad Junction and Kanpur Central and it runs five days a week -- Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.