RITES to undertake safety assessment of Vande Bharat trains
May 06, 2024
New Delhi [India], May 6 : RITES Limited, a prime transport infrastructure consultancy in India, together with ItalCertifier SPA, an Italian State Railways Group company, has won a contract to undertake independent safety assessment (ISA) of the Vande Bharat sleeper trains.
As per a release by RITES, the contract has been awarded by Integral Coach Factory (ICF)-Chennai, a production unit under the Ministry of Railways.
The consortium will conduct design reviews, final safety acceptance assessments, and review test results.
With this contract, RITES, the only ISA-certified central public sector enterprise, has ventured into a new business stream and it said it is committed to advancing ISA works by leveraging its expertise in the Quality Assurance segment.
The company has experience spanning over five decades and has undertaken projects in over 55 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East region.
Meanwhile, as an excellent example of the 'Make in India' success story, the Indian Railways launched India's first indigenous Semi High-Speed train, Vande Bharat Express. The first Vande Bharat Express train was flagged off on February 15, 2019, on the New Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi route.
The Vande Bharat Express can run up to a maximum speed of 160 kmph and has travel classes like Shatabdi Train but with better facilities.
Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, a Railways Production unit, has been the force behind a completely in-house design and manufacturing.
All coaches are equipped with automatic doors; GPS-based audio-visual passenger information system, on-board hotspot Wi-Fi for entertainment purposes, and very comfortable seating. The executive class also has rotating chairs.
The Vande Bharat Express has 16 air-conditioned coaches of which two are executive class coaches. The total seating capacity is 1,128 passengers. It is much more than the conventional Shatabdi rake of an equal number of coaches.
