New Delhi, Sep 20 (IANS): The Railways will have to make major changes in its entire network for the Vande Bharat train, which is being converted from diesel to electric engine. The Vande Bharat train consumes double the electricity than the normal electric trains.

This system has been implemented in many countries where high speed passenger trains run. These countries include China, Japan, France and South Africa. If the Railways plan to run Vande Bharat trains in its entire network, then major changes will have to be made in the whole network and more and more power will also be needed.

The existing overhead lines may find it difficult to meet the future demand for high-speed trains running simultaneously. Hence it has been decided to upgrade the overhead wires.

Recently, the Railways floated a tender for 1650 km track between Delhi and Mughalsarai at a cost of Rs 1,140 crore. The Railways have to bring 247 broad gauge network completely on the electricity network by 2023. In this direction, it has been successful on a 52,247 km route till April this year, out of the 65,414 km network.

The 16-coach Shatabdi train has a locomotive at one end which provides about 6,000 horsepower while the Vande Bharat train has eight motorized coaches which provide about 12,000 horsepower to the train. That is why, working on the network for Vande Bharat train is also a big challenge.