The Railway Board will add 20 coaches to seven Vande Bharat routes due to high occupancy, upgrading some from 8 to 16 and others from 16 to 20 coaches. Production of sleeper trains continues, with Bikaner’s first Vande Bharat launching in September
The Railway Board has come up with a new initiative. The authorities have decided to upgrade Vande Bharat trains with more coaches following the occupancy of passengers. As per the directive, 20 coaches will be added to seven operational routes. A tentative replacement plan for the Vande Bharat trains is designed on the basis of occupancy. The Indian Railways is currently operating 144 Vande Bharat train services. The trains have recorded impressive passenger loads, with an overall occupancy of 102.01 per cent in FY 2024–25 and 105.03 per cent in FY 2025–26 (up to June 2025).
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The seven routes where the additional coaches will be introduced are Mangaluru Central-Thiruvananthapuram Central, Secunderabad–Tirupati, Chennai Egmore–Tirunelveli, Madurai–Bengaluru Cantt, Deoghar–Varanasi, Howrah–Rourkela and Indore–Nagpur.
According to Dilip Kumar, the Executive Director, Information and Publicity, Railway Board, "The 16-car train will be upgraded to 20-car and those having 8-car will be increased to 16-car. On the basis of occupancy for Financial Year 2025-26 (up to 31.07.2025) and feasibility for augmentation, a tentative augmentation of three 16-car Vande Bharat train services with 20-car and four 8-car Vande Bharat trains with 16-car has been planned,” as quoted by Live Mint.
As part of the planned upgradation process, three Vande Bharat routes — Mangaluru Central–Thiruvananthapuram Central, Secunderabad–Tirupati, and Chennai Egmore–Tirunelveli — will be expanded from 16 coaches to 20. Meanwhile, the other four routes that currently operate with 8-coach trains will be doubled to 16 coaches.
At present, 10 Vande Bharat Sleeper trains are under production. The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai is also on a mission to produce about 50 more sleeper rakes. In addition, contracts have been awarded to technology partners for manufacturing another 200 sleeper rakes.
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In other news, Bikaner in Rajasthan is set to welcome its first Vande Bharat Express. The operations for this high-speed semi-luxury train, linking Bikaner with the National Capital, are set to begin in mid-September. Arjun Ram Meghwal, the MP of Bikaner and Union Minister of State for Law and Justice, confirmed the development on social media. Read all about it here.
