Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw
| Photo Credit: ANI
The Indian Railways will introduce Vande Metro trains to serve cities located between 100 and 200 kilometres apart, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Railways, said on Sunday. He announced that two of these trains successfully passed all necessary tests.
“The first Vande Metro train will be launched next month. We anticipate full-scale production to begin within the next year-and-a-half, with multiple trains being delivered monthly after that,” Mr. Vaishnaw revealed.
Building on the success of the Vande Bharat trains, the Indian Railways is now planning to launch Vande Metro. A significant milestone was reached on August 3, when Southern Railway conducted a trial run of a new Vande Metro rake in Chennai.
In response to concerns about food quality on trains, Mr. Vaishnaw highlighted that Railways serves between 12 and 13 lakh meals daily, with complaints about food quality making up only 0.01% of the total complaits.
“We take every complaint seriously and have taken stringent action against caterers and suppliers involved,” he emphasised.
Meanwhile, the Minister also criticised the previous Congress-led government, accusing them of long neglect and politicisation of Railways. “We are now addressing the root causes of the issues in Railways and implementing structural changes. What the Congress and the UPA should have done years ago, we are doing now,” Mr. Vaishnaw claimed.
