Railways issues a Rs 26,000 crore tender for the manufacture of 200 Vande Bharat trains

The Railways has issued a tender worth Rs 26,000 crore for the production of 200 Vande Bharat trains with aluminium coaches.

The bidding documents for the light weight semi-high-speed trains are now complete.

The bidder has the option of selecting steel or aluminium, and the bid is expected to open in late August.

The Railways plans to deliver 75 Vande Bharat trains by August 23 of next year, with two of them expected to be delivered in August of this year.

There are plans to run such trains on the Shatabdi and Rajdhani routes to significantly reduce travel time.

Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister, announced 400 more Vande Bharat trains in her budget for 2022-23.