The Vande Bharat Express trains have become a major success story of the Atmairbhar Bharat initiative. With 16 Vande Bharat Express trains running and many to be inaugurated in the coming days, the new trains have become a popular mode of transport among travellers. But at the same time, the trains have been the target of the opposition who criticised it in different ways on various occasions. The Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw gave a befitting reply to such politically motivated critics while speaking at the Republic Summit on 26th April 2023.
Ashwini Vaishnaw was interviewed by Arnab Goswami at the Republic Summit. Arnab Goswami asked the union railway minister about the politically motivated criticism of the Vande Bharat Express. Answering this question, Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “There is a political discourse around it. There is a large section of the political establishment that doesn’t like Vande Bharat Express. Why don’t they like it? Because, for forty, fifty, and sixty years, that political class continuously gave trains which were of 1940s design, 1950s design, and 1960s design. They never upgraded when the world was going at a rapid pace far ahead. They kept India in a very dark situation where their only thought process was to give some crumbs and keep milking this entire population as a vote bank.”
Ashwini Vaishnaw further said, “Our Prime Minister fundamentally changed that entire thought process and political discourse. He says that we have to empower our people. Look at the children who are travelling on these trains. Look at the young people who are travelling on these trains. Look at their videos. Go to YouTube. Yesterday, one person from Kottayam who has about two and a half million followers on YouTube posted a video. Listen to what he says. He says, ‘I have travelled all over the world and I always used to dream when a train like Germany, a train like what we see in Switzerland will come to India.’ And today – that person says, I don’t remember the exact name of his channel – he says ‘Today I am so happy that India has got a world-class train’.”
Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “I will tell you why it is world-class on every parameter. Acceleration – 0 to 100 kilometres per hour – this Vande Bharat train does it in 52 seconds while a bullet train takes 24 seconds for it. Any Swiss, German, or other train does it in 58 to 60 seconds. The ride index – despite whatever the condition of our tracks today and we are continuously upgrading them – you keep a glass of water in Vande Bharat and the water will not spill. You try doing that on other trains in Germany – I tried doing that from Davos to Zurich – the glass shakes. Very different. The noise level inside the train – compared to an aeroplane and the noise level within an aircraft – is measured, and we get 100 times less noise inside the Vande Bharat train. It’s not something that is a political narrative. It’s basically meeting people’s aspirations.”
Ashwini Vaishnaw added, “If something catches people’s imagination, that kind of phenomenon cannot be created. It happens naturally. Today’s India is aspirational India. Today’s youth are no longer happy with small little crumbs. Today’s youth wants the best in the world. We have to give them. As a political class, it is our duty. And that is the fundamental change in the mindset that Prime Minister Modi Ji has brought about. The Congress’ mindset was to keep giving crumbs, to keep giving small little incremental things. Modi Ji’s mindset is to make step changes, to make quantum changes in what we are delivering.”
The Railway minister also revealed the future plans for the Vande Bharat Express trains. He said that the trains will have three separate formats, chair car, Vande metro format, and Vande sleeper format. At present, Vande Bharat Express coaches have only chair car format in two classes, CC Chair (Economy) and Executive Chair (Premium).
Ashwini Vaishnaw said that Vande Metro will be used for short distances, to connect places within a distance of 200 km. These trains will be used to run shuttle services between two nearby cities. For distances up to 500-600 km, the chair car format Vande Bharat train will be used. And for distances beyond 600 km, the sleeper version will be used.
