By Khabar Rojana 
Vande Bharat Express: The Railway Board has decided to upgrade the number of coaches in the Mangaluru Central to Thiruvananthapuram Central Vande Bharat from 16 to 20.
Kerala BJP chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Friday stated that one of the two Vande Bharats running in the state might get more coaches as early as Onam festival. In this regard, the Railway Board has decided to upgrade the number of coaches in the Mangaluru Central to Thiruvananthapuram Central Vande Bharat from 16 to 20.
Welcoming the upgrade, Chandrasekhar said, in a Facebook post, that it might happen as early as Onam and it will significantly ease the burden on commuters and make travel more comfortable and convenient.
The BJP state chief further said in his post that while others make empty promises, it is the Modi government which is “delivering real development for Kerala, strengthening our railways, expanding our roads, and modernising our ports”.
In the meantime, the Railway Board said it will upgrade Vande Bharat trains with more coaches on seven operational routes after considering the high occupancy of passengers.
These seven routes include Mangaluru Central-Thiruvananthapuram Central, Secunderabad–Tirupati, Chennai Egmore–Tirunelveli, Madurai–Bengaluru Cantt, Deoghar–Varanasi, Howrah– Rourkela and Indore–Nagpur.
An Indian Railways official said that at present four 8 coaches (also called cars) and three 16 coaches Vande Bharat trains are operational on these routes.
“The 16-car train will be upgraded to 20-car and those having 8-car will be increased to 16-car,” Dilip Kumar, Executive Director, Information and Publicity, Railway Board, said.
“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 train with 16-car has been planned,” he added.
The Board officials said that besides these upgrades, more 20-car Vande Bharat trains will be ready for launches and one 16-car train will be available for augmentation.
As per scheduled upgradation, three routes — Mangaluru Central–Thiruvananthapuram Central, Secunderabad–Tirupati, Chennai Egmore–Tirunelveli — which have at present 16-car Vande Bharat will be upgraded to 20-car and the remaining four routes having 8-car Vande Bharat service will get 16-car trains.
Shalu Shalu