Indian Railways today started the trial run of to be launched Chennai-Mysore Vande Bharat Express from Chennai’s MG Ramachandran Central Railway station. The Chennai-Mysore Vande Bharat Express train will be flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Nov 11, the first such indigenously-built high-speed rail in the southern part of India and the country’s fifth.

Vande Bharat Express is a train set rake of 16 Coaches comprising Executive Class and Chair Car coaches. It is an advanced version of Vande Bharat compared to the earlier ones, being much lighter and capable of reaching higher speed in shorter duration.It accelerates to 100 km per hour in just 52 seconds. The introduction of the train will help boost tourism in the region and provide a comfortable and faster mode of travel.
This will be the fifth Vande Bharat train in the country, the other four being run between New Delhi – Varanasi and New Delhi – Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra, Gandhinagar and Mumbai,and New Delhi-Una.
According to Railways, the new Vande Bharat trains have improved features including reclining seats, automatic fire sensors, CCTV cameras, on-demand content with wifi Facility, three-hour battery backup and GPS systems to make travelling safer and more comfortable. The Integral Coach Factory has set a target of manufacturing 75 Vande Bharat trains by August 2023.

It also has a photocatalytic ultraviolet air purification system in the roof-mounted package unit (RMPU) for air purification. Vande Bharat Express is a new-age train redefining passenger travelling in India. Vande Bharat 2.0 trains come fitted with the Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) called KAVACH, which the previous trains did not have. Coaches are equipped with disaster lights with a battery backup of three hours.

The train’s exterior has eight flatform-side cameras, up from four. There is also a passenger-guard communication facility in coaches, which comes with an automatic voice recording feature.