Medha Servo Drives wins ₹2,211-cr rail equipment orders

The Indian Railways has awarded projects worth ₹2,211 crore to Hyderabad-based firm Medha Servo Drives for procurement of equipment for manufacturing additional rakes of Vande Bharat train sets. The contract is for designing and manufacturing of propulsion, control and other equipment for making 44 rakes, having sixteen cars each of Vande Bharat train sets. The project will be completed under 'Make in India' policy involving indigenous procurement of 90 per cent. Vande Bharat express, the train 18 project, is an indigenous semi high-speed trainset manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai. The train can run up to a maximum speed of 160 km/hour and currently, two Vande Bharat trains are operational in the country connecting the national capital with Katra and Varanasi. The ministry plans to make 40 Vande Bharat trains operational by the end of next year. The trains are likely to be introduced on Bangalore-Hyderabad, Mumbai-Ahmedabad and Kolkata-Patna routes. The manufacturing work of Vande Bharat train sets will also be taken up at Modern Coach Factory, Rai Bareilly and Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala in Punjab.