NEW DELHI (Metro Rail News): The Railway Board has granted conditional approval to the first 16-car Vande Bharat chair car built at the Rail Coach Factory (RCF), Kapurthala, while directing that a set of technical defects be fixed, according to its letter dated 23 October 2026.
“Though the Railway Board has granted approval for the operation of the train at 160 kmph, it cannot run beyond 130 kmph due to speed restrictions imposed by the Board across all rail networks,” a senior zonal official said.
Defects Flagged
The letter, addressed to the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO), zonal railways, the Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety and the Commissioners of Railway Safety, lists several issues:
| Area | Board’s observation |
| Driver display unit | “The DDU screen has poor touch sensitivity and is difficult to operate. The same needs to be corrected.” |
| Fire extinguishers | “Fire extinguishers provided in the coach have acrylic doors that are loosely secured. These need to be properly secured.” |
| Circuit breakers | Single-pole MCBs in the electrical control cabinets, where earlier versions used double-pole, make faults harder to trace. To be corrected in this rake, with all future rakes built with double-pole MCBs. |
| Labelling | MCBs are not labelled to show which equipment each controls; RCF to provide proper identification labels. |
| Traction motor | Rated at 270 kW against lower ratings from other manufacturers; RDSO and RCF to justify the difference. |
“This poses serious concerns for tracing the faults in case of any failure or malfunction,” the letter said of the circuit breakers. Explaining the labelling issue, an official said that if lighting in a coach fails, a technician opening the electrical cabinet may not find the fault quickly unless the MCBs are clearly marked.
First Chair Car Built Outside ICF
RCF Kapurthala rolled out the rake with an Alstom propulsion system on 31 March 2026. It is the first Vande Bharat chair car built outside the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai.
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