After the completion of the long distance trial of the first Vande Bharat Sleeper train, the Ministry of Railways has given an order to manufacture nine more sleeper versions of Vande Bharat Express trains by the end of December 2025. Officials said that these 16-car trains will be produced by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), the Indian Railways' manufacturing unit in Chennai. Apart from this, the Indian Railways is also eyeing the production of 24-car Vande Bharat Sleeper trains. It has placed an order for propulsion electrics, the system where a train is powered by electricity, for 50 rakes of 24-car Vande Bharat Sleeper train sets on December 17, 2024. The order has been awarded to two companies — Hyderabad-based Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd (MSDPL) and French manufacturer Alstom — who will supply propulsion systems for 33 rakes and 17 rakes, respectively over two years. Officials said that the full-scale production of the 24-car Vande Bharat Sleeper train may commence in 2026-27. Trials completed The Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO) successfully completed trials of the first 16-car Vande Bharat Sleeper train set on January 15, 2025 for a 540 km distance on the Mumbai- Ahmedabad section. The manufacturing of the train was completed by the ICF on December 17 last year and it was also brought to the Kota Division to test it for the short-distance runs of 30-40 km at a high speed of 180 km per hour. Officials said that before the operationalisation of India’s first Vande Bharat Sleeper train, RDSO, the research wing of Indian Railways, will issue a final certificate after analysing the trial runs. The railway safety commissioner will evaluate the train at its maximum speed. The 16-coach train is divided into three classes — AC 1st Class, AC 2-Tier, and AC 3-Tier. It has a total capacity of 1,128 passengers and is equipped with crash buffers, deformation tubes, and a fire-barrier wall. Apart from this, the Indian Railways has already signed two major contracts with national and international private players for the supply of Vande Bharat Sleeper trains. In June 2023, a consortium of Titagarh Rail Systems Ltd (TRSL) and state-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) won the contract for manufacturing 80 Vande Bharat sleeper trains at a cost of Rs 24,000 crore. Similarly, on September 27, 2023, the Indian Railways signed a contract with the Indo-Russia joint venture Kinet Railway Solutions Ltd for the production of Vande Bharat Sleeper trains. The Indo-Russian special purpose vehicle (SPV) formed by the consortium of Russia's largest rolling stock manufacturer Transmashholding's units (TMH), Locomotive Electronic Systems (LES) and Metrowagonmash with Indian state-owned Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL). As per the contract, Kinet will supply a total of 1,920 Vande Bharat Sleeper coaches to the Indian Railways and will offer maintenance services for 35 years. The manufacturing of these trains will be done at Marathwada Rail Coach Factory (MRCF) in Latur, Maharashtra.
