Chennai, Sep 16 (IANS): Indian Railways-owned Integral Coach Factory (ICF) located here will be launching a couple of new variants of Vande Bharat trains this fiscal and more are on the anvil, a top official has said.

According to ICF General Manager B.G.Mallya, the sleeper and inter-city variants (of the Vande Bharat trains) will be launched this fiscal. Currently, the Vande Bharat trains designed and built by the ICF offer only seating facilities.

Mallya said that the fully air-conditioned Vande Bharat sleeper train will have 16 coaches -- 11 three tier, four two tier and one First Class.

He asserted that for train journeys beyond 1,500 km, sleeper trains are better. The inter-city Vande Metro train to be launched in January 2024, will have 12 coaches each with a seating capacity of 100 and standees capacity of 200. Its maximum speed will be 130 kmph and the prototype will be ready this calendar year.

A non-air conditioned train will also be launched this fiscal.

The ICF is also building Vande Bharat variants for freight carrying with a maximum speed of 130 kmph, suburban travel and light weight train with aluminium coaches.

The first Vande Bharat train running between New Delhi-Varanasi was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019.