Tata Steel-Indian Railways sign agreement for Vande Bharat trains

10 Mar 2023 , 11:26 AM

India’s largest steelmaker, Tata Steel has signed an agreement with Indian Railways to manufacture 22  Vande Bharat Express trains in the coming year, reported IANS.

The Ministry of Railways has set the production target of 200 Vande Bharat trains for the next 2 years and also aims to start India’s first sleeper Vande Bharat version by the first quarter of 2024.

Keeping the production aim in view, the Railway Ministry has signed agreement with Tata Steel to speed up the work. 

As per various news sources, Tata Steel is constantly engaged in increasing its stake in the Railways and has also posted officials for coordinating with the Railways. Indian Railways has given a tender of about Rs 145 crore to the company for manufacturing the parts of the train under the scheme. The manufacturing parts will take 12 months to complete.

The seats in the Vande Bharat Express, for all the classes, will now be manufactured by Tata Steel. The contract for making Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches of the train has also been given to the company, under which structures of panels and windows are being prepared.

Debashish Bhattacharya, Vice President (Technology and New Materials Business), Tata Steel, said: ‘The seats of this train are specially designed, which can rotate up to 180-degree and have aircraft-like passenger amenities which are a first in India.’