Vande Bharat Express: In very good news for commuters the Indian Railway has announced that it will upgrade Vande Bharat Express trains with more coaches on seven operational routes in wake of the enhanced demand by passengers. According to officials four 8 coaches and three 16 coaches Vande Bharat trains are operational on these routes and will be upgraded with more coaches in the coming future following a decision by the Railway Board. Which Vande Bharat routes will be upgraded? As per the Railways the Vande Bharat trains on the Mangaluru Central-Thiruvananthapuram Central Secunderabad–Tirupati Chennai Egmore–Tirunelveli Madurai–Bengaluru Cantt Deoghar–Varanasi Howrah– Rourkela and the Indore–Nagpur will be upgraded with more coaches after considering the high occupancy of passengers. The released trains will also be introduced on some other new routes they said. “The 16-car train will be upgraded to 20-car and those having 8-car will be increased to 16-car” said Dilip Kumar Executive Director Information and Publicity Railway Board according to news agency PTI. When will Vande Bharat trains be upgraded? As per the Railway Board the Vande Bharat trains on the seven routes are being upgraded on the basis of occupancy for the fiscal year 2025-26. “On the basis of occupancy for Financial Year 2025-26 (up to 31.07.2025) and feasibility for augmentation a tentative augmentation of three 16-car Vande Bharat train services with 20-car and four 8-Car Vande Bharat train with 16-car has been planned” Kumar added. Apart from these upgrades additional 20-car Vande Bharat trains will be ready for launches and one 16-car train will be available for augmentation the Board said. “A tentative replacement plan of Vande Bharat train service is planned on the basis of occupancy. After this the released rakes (trains) of 16-Car and 8-Car will be utilized for running new services” they said. HIGHLIGHTS The Railways Board has decided to upgrade Vande Bharat trains with additional coaches on seven routes. The decision was taken on the basis of increased passenger occupancy for FY 2025-26. Under the plan 16-car train will be upgraded to 20-car and those having 8-car will be increased to 16-car. Additional 20-car Vande Bharat trains will be ready for launches and one 16-car train will be available for augmentation. As per scheduled upgradation three routes -- Mangaluru Central–Thiruvananthapuram Central Secunderabad–Tirupati Chennai Egmore–Tirunelveli -- which have at present 16-car Vande Bharat will be upgraded to 20-car and the remaining four routes having 8-car Vande Bharat service will get 16-car trains.