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Railways to build 100 MEMUs and 50 Namo Bharat trains for short trips
To ease passenger woes in short-distance railway travel, the government will manufacture new 100 expanded mainline electric multiple units (MEMU) and 50 Namo Bharat trains, Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said here on Tuesday.
'Yesterday, two major decisions were made. To ease passenger travel, 100 MEMUs will be manufactured with 16 and 20 coaches. Earlier, MEMUs were manufactured with 8 or 12 coaches. A new factory is being set up in Kazipet, Telangana where these trains will be made,' the minister said at the inauguration of India's largest automobile loading facility at Maruti Suzuki India's Manesar plant.
A MEMU is a type of electric multiple unit train designed for operation on mainline tracks, connecting city centres with suburban areas for short to medium-distance routes with frequent stops.
The minister also added that the ministry of railways will build 50 new Namo Bharat trains. These air-conditioned trains were developed for short-distance travel between cities. The first of these trains was launched last year in Gujarat.
The minister also said that the GatiShakti Cargo Terminal, dedicated for Maruti Suzuki's car transportation, will enable greening of logistics as these cars were earlier ferried via road transport.
'In line with the vision of the Prime Minister, railways undertook major reforms in 2021 to strengthen multi-modal logistics, resulting in the construction of 108 multi-modal cargo terminals in a short span of time. The terminal in Haryana, where the announcement was made, is spread over 45 acres and has a cargo handling capacity of up to 4.5 lakh cars,' he said.
The minister also said that a pilot project in the Bikaner division of North Western Railway to publish final charts with passenger allocation 24 hours before the train's departure has borne great results. He added that the facility will allow passengers to plan their journeys better.
Currently, charts are published some 2-3 hours before the train's departure time, leaving passengers anxious about their travel plans.
Maruti Suzuki transported 518,000 units in 2024-25 through the Automobile Freight Train Operator scheme. The railways, in FY25, crossed the mark of one million cars transported through its network. Now, 20 per cent of all cars manufactured in India are transported via rail.
At the same event, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said that the government's railway work in the state and the Manesar cargo terminal will ease connectivity to ports on the western coast, enabling better access to export networks.
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