{"id":34909,"date":"2023-04-13T04:32:38","date_gmt":"2023-04-12T23:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=34909"},"modified":"2025-04-20T19:47:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T14:17:21","slug":"vande-bharat-express-in-jammu-and-kashmir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/vande-bharat-express-in-jammu-and-kashmir\/","title":{"rendered":"Vande Bharat Express in Jammu and Kashmir"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>About the Vande Bharat Express<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The Vande Bharat Express in Jammu and Kashmir (History, Challenges, Safety and Security, Benefits)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>According to the Union Railway Ministry, a Vande Bharat Express will run between Jammu and Kashmir soon as the work on the 272-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Line (USBRL) is completed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>About the Vande Bharat Express:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Formerly known as<strong> Train 18<\/strong>, it is an <strong>electric multiple-unit, low cost, semi-high-speed<\/strong> train designed by Research Designs &amp; Standards Organisation (<strong>RDSO<\/strong>), manufactured by the <strong>Integral Coach Factory<\/strong> (ICF, Chennai) and operated by <strong>Indian Railways<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>The cost of a 16-coach Vande Bharat train is about \u20b9115 crore, while the cost of 8-coach (Mini) train is about \u20b970 crore.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The train has achieved a <strong>maximum speed of 180 km\/h<\/strong> (110 mph) and went into service on 15 February 2019 (New Delhi- Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi route).\n<ul>\n<li>The latest (12 April, 2023) and 15th Vande Bharat Express train will ply between Jaipur and Delhi Cantt railway station.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>It was made with <strong>low-cost maintenance and operational optimisation in mind.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u25cf \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi-test.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/content\/ckeditor\/2023\/04\/20\/image-20230420105510-1.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Vande Bharat Express in Jammu and Kashmir:<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi-test.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/content\/ckeditor\/2023\/04\/20\/image-20230420105510-2.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: Vande Bharat Express in Jammu and Kashmir<\/p>\n<h2>\u00a0<\/h2>\n<h2><strong>History of the project:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The first railway line<\/strong> in the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was built by the British in <strong>1897 <\/strong>over a distance of 40-45 km between Jammu and Sialkot in the plains.<\/li>\n<li>After Partition, <strong>Sialkot went to Pakistan<\/strong>, and Jammu was disconnected from the rail network of India.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Until the inauguration of the Pathankot-Jammu line in 1975<\/strong>, the railway station nearest to Jammu and Kashmir was Pathankot in Punjab.<\/li>\n<li>In <strong>1983<\/strong>, work began on a railway line between Jammu and Udhampur. The project was completed in 2004 and has 20 major tunnels, and 158 bridges.<\/li>\n<li>With work underway on the Jammu-Udhampur line, the government approved (1995) the extension of the line from Udhampur to Srinagar, and then Baramulla &#8211; <strong>USBRL project<\/strong> &#8211; at an estimated cost of Rs 2,500 crore.<\/li>\n<li>The project was declared (2002) as a <strong>national project<\/strong> on account of its being among the most challenging works undertaken by the Indian Railways after Independence, with the project cost now ballooned to<strong> over Rs 35,000 crore.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Challenges and innovations:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The Himalayas are young<\/strong> and the <strong>geologically unstable<\/strong> Shivalik Hills and Pir Panjal mountains lie in the <strong>seismically most active Zones IV and V.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The terrain, which sees <strong>heavy snow <\/strong>in winter, presents serious challenges in the construction of <strong>bridges and tunnels.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>In view of the challenges in the construction, engineers of the Railways devised a novel <strong>Himalayan Tunneling Method<\/strong> (HTM).<\/li>\n<li>Under this, <strong>horseshoe-shaped tunnels were constructed <\/strong>instead of the usual D-shaped ones.<\/li>\n<li>The site comes down in a <strong>curve <\/strong>giving strength to the structure where the soil above it is loose.<\/li>\n<li>The broad gauge railway line will have <strong>0.5-1% ruling gradient<\/strong>, <strong>avoiding the need for bank engines <\/strong>in a mountainous region.<\/li>\n<li>The trains will be powered by<strong> diesel locomotives for now,<\/strong> but there is a provision for electrification in the future.<\/li>\n<li>Trains can run at speeds up to<strong> 100 km\/h<\/strong> for the entire length of the journey.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Safety and security:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>All the major bridges, tunnels, and railway stations will be illuminated and have <strong>CCTV <\/strong>cameras.<\/li>\n<li>The track and tunnels have been designed to require<strong> as little maintenance as possible.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Development benefits:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It will <strong>bring down the travel time<\/strong> between Srinagar and Jammu to between three and three-and-a-half hours from the five to six hours that it takes by road currently.<\/li>\n<li>It will <strong>provide a reliable and cost-effective all-weather alternative<\/strong> to the Jammu-Srinagar national highway that is frequently shut down by <strong>landslides<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It will <strong>facilitate hassle-free transport of goods<\/strong> such as apples, dry fruits, pashmina shawls, handicrafts etc., to other parts of the country in the shortest possible time and at lesser cost.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Four cargo terminals will be built <\/strong>between Banihal and Baramulla, land has been identified for three of these terminals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What is the Research Designs &amp; Standards Organisation (RDSO)?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>It is the R&amp;D organisation (1957, Lucknow) under the Ministry of Railways, which functions as a technical adviser and consultant to the Railway Board, the Zonal Railways, etc., in respect of design and standardisation of railway equipment, etc.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) What are MEMU trains?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>On Indian Railways, the Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMUs) are electric multiple unit (EMU) trains that serve short and medium-distance routes in India, as compared to normal EMU trains that connect urban and suburban areas.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/tracking-the-train-to-kashmir-how-the-vande-bharat-is-set-to-transform-commute-in-the-valley-8553270\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Tracking the train to Kashmir: How the Vande Bharat is set to transform commute in the Valley<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vande Bharat is an electric multiple-unit, low cost, semi-high-speed train designed by RDSO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":34910,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}