The Namo Bharat is an Indian

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number o ...

(EMU) train built for

RapidX The RapidX is a rapid rail system operated by the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) in India's National Capital Region (NCR). RapidX is India's first regional rapid transit system and it has been envisioned to replace the ...

(Regional Rapid Transit services). The train was designed by the French

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, Railroad car#Freight cars, freight and Passenger railroad car, passenger cars (or coaches) ...

manufacturer

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

at its engineering centre in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

Telangana Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ele ...

, and was manufactured in

Savli Savli is a village near Vadodara, Gujarat in Western India. It is located near one of the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation centres, which includes companies such as Nirma Chemical, Bombardier Transportation (now acquired by Alstom ...

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

. The train has an aerodynamic design which reduces the drag when it travels. The train has a design speed of and is operated at a speed of . Currently, it is running and operational on Delhi Meerut RRTS system.

History

As the

service was conceived, there was a need for a new semi-high-speed trainset, specifically built for the purpose of semi-high-speed regional rail travel. In accordance with the

Make in India is an initiative by the Government of India to create and encourage companies to develop, manufacture and assemble products in India and incentivize dedicated investments into manufacturing. The policy approach was to create a conducive envi ...

initiative, the train sets were set to be locally built after the

National Capital Region Transport Corporation The National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) is a joint venture company of the Government of India and the states of Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of D ...

(NCRTC) opened the tenders for the same in 2019. In early 2020, NCRTC finalised the procurement of train set, which were set to be manufactured by

Bombardier Transportation Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, with headquarters in Toronto and Berlin. It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. ...

. The tender was finalised for the train to have 50% of the local components as opposed to the original requirement of 75% in line with the Make in India initiative. Later in the year, the train's design was unveiled to the public. The stainless steel body of the train was designed to have a maximum speed of 180 km/h. On 19 October 2023, the trainset was named Namo Bharat. On 20 October 2023, the trainset was officially inaugurated by

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

and entered service. On 21 October 2023, the trainset made its commercial debut in the Duhai - Sahibabad section.

Engineering

Exterior

The train is designed to have a stainless steel body with an

aerodynamic Aerodynamics () is the study of the motion of atmosphere of Earth, air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dynamics and its subfield of gas dynamics, and is an ...

nose cone to reduce the air drag resistance produced while travelling at higher speeds. The train is relatively lighter in weight thanks to its stainless steel body. For easier entry and exit, each car is equipped with six doors, three on each side, excluding the Business class which has four doors, two on each side. Each car has

double glazed Insulating glass (IG) consists of two or more glass window panes separated by a space to reduce heat transfer across a part of the building envelope. A window with insulating glass is commonly known as double glazing or a double-paned window, ...

, tempered safety glass windows.

Interior

The train has a 2x2 seating arrangement with adequate legroom for the passengers. The aisles have grab handles and poles for

standing passenger In urban public transport, provision is made for standing passengers, often called straphangers or standees, to rationalize operation and to provide extra capacity during rush hour. On crowded rapid transit urban lines, while most travelers may ...

s during the peak hours. Since it is built for regional rail service, it has an overhead luggage rack. When it comes to digital features the train has on-board Wi-Fi, a public announcement and display system, an infotainment display, a dynamic route map display and emergency communication facilities. For efficient consumption of energy, the trainsets include ambient lighting and temperature control systems. The train is also accessible with a dedicated wheelchair space. When it comes to safety, the train is equipped with a fire & smoke detector, CCTV, fire extinguisher and door status indicator along with innovative Train Control Monitoring System technology, and its predictive and condition-based monitoring features.

Technology

The trainset is equipped with a new signalling technology called "ETCS L3 hybrid technology over LTE" which helps contribute to safety, facilitating interoperability, reducing wait time and enabling efficiency. There are plans to equip the trainset with Automatic Train Operation (ATO) over Long Term Evolution (LTE) in the future to further increase network performance and capacity.

In service

The Namo Bharat trainset was brought into service when the Delhi Meerut RRTS (

) line was inaugurated on 20 October 2023. The trainset is expected to be used in other proposed RapidX routes as well. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 13 kilometre long Delhi section of the Namo Bharat corridor between Ashok Nagar and Sahibabad on 5th January 2025. This connects Delhi to Meerut and reduces the travel time to 40 minutes.

References

External links

* {{High-speed rail in India Electric multiple units of India Higher-speed rail Express trains in India National Capital Region (India)