On Monday, a heritage steam engine displayed in Delhi’s Rail Bhawan complex was shifted to a museum here. Now, a replica of the Indian Railways’ semi-high speed Vande Bharat Express train will replace it, officials said.
Built-in Glasgow in the year 1925, the locomotive belonged to the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), a UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to railway experts, the engine was brought to the national capital a few years after independence.
An Indian Railways spokesperson was quoted as saying that the heritage locomotive was removed in the early hours of the Rail Bhawan premises and shifted to the National Rail Museum in Chanakyapuri, to make it “accessible” to the general public. ,
Since entry to Rail Bhavan is restricted, very few people could see it here. It will be accessible to more people at the National Rail Museum. The spokesperson further said that was the idea behind the decision.
He said the engine would be replaced with a replica which would represent the ‘Make in India’ Vande Bharat Express train. Now, the replica model will symbolically display the Vande Bharat Express, the country’s first indigenously built train.
However, sources cited in the report said the move is a way of showing the strong growth of the national transporter, marking the Indian Railways’ move to replace a heritage loco with a modern, state-of-the-art Vande Bharat coach. Next-generation trainsets.
According to the report, the Indian Railway network started its journey in the year 1853. The country’s first semi-high speed train- Vande Bharat Express started its first commercial run in February 2019.
This Shatabdi Express-type semi-high speed train has features like automatic sliding doors with onboard infotainment, CCTV cameras, GPS-based passenger information system, zero discharge vacuum-based bio-toilets as well as retractable coach footsteps.