Chennai: An incident of stone pelting on Vande Bharat train running from Chennai to Tirunelveli near Maniyachchi Railway station has come to the fore. 

Glasses of at least nine coaches damaged in this attack. 

Unknown individuals hurled stones towards Vande Bharat. It is now unknown who threw the stones and why they were thrown.

No injuries or casualty have been reported. 

A case has been registered. 

Ten Vande Bharat sleeper trains  to be operational by March this year.

In March 2024, the Vande Bharat Express Sleeper Trains are anticipated to start operating, as previously indicated. First ten sleeper class train batches are scheduled to arrive in the upcoming months, with trial runs perhaps starting in April, as per media reports. 

The Vande Bharat Express Sleeper Trains are anticipated to operate faster than Rajdhanis at first, mostly between Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah. 

The sleeper train prototypes, which will include sleeping berths for both AC and non-AC carriages, are ready. There will be between sixteen and twenty coaches in all. 

The Integral Coach Factory in Chennai holds the prototypes for the first batch of sleeper trains.

In a statement, the Union Minister of Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “Starting March, there will be a rollout of Vande Bharat sleeper trains. In total, 10 trains will be rolled out in a phased manner. These are prototypes. Vande Bharat along with Amrit Bharat (trains on push-pull technology) and Namo-Bharat (rapid rail transit system) are transforming the way people travel.”

The trains are being manufactured by Bharat Earth Movers Limited and the Integral Coach Factory with a number of unique features, like mood-calming lighting, as per media reports. 

According to railroad insiders, each sleeper version train will consist of sixteen AC1 tier coaches, each of which can hold 850 berths, according to media reports.