BEML to build B28 bullet train

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw inaugurated BEML’s Aditya complex in Bengaluru on April 25 and said the plant will manufacture India’s first indigenous bullet train, the B-28. (indianexpress.com) (aninews.in) Vaishnaw said the B-28 is being designed jointly by Chennai-based Integral Coach Factory and BEML, with manufacturing assigned to the new Aditya plant in Bengaluru. He said the facility uses high-precision systems including robotic laser welding. (aninews.in) The Ministry of Railways has set a target of the first trainset by the first quarter of 2027, and Indian Express reported BEML was awarded the contract in October 2024 to design, manufacture and commission two high-speed trainsets. (indianexpress.com) The train is planned as a 280-kph indigenous set for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail corridor, not the 320-kph Japanese Shinkansen sets already being procured for that line. Railways has said the first operating segment for B-28 is planned between Surat and Vapi, a 97-km stretch. (indianexpress.com) That makes the Aditya complex more than a factory opening. It is the production site for a train India wants to design, weld, test and certify at home before putting it into passenger service. (indianexpress.com) (aninews.in) The wider manufacturing push was visible elsewhere this week. Azad Engineering opened a 7,600-square-metre lean manufacturing facility at Tunikibollaram in Hyderabad on April 23 to support Baker Hughes, after what the company described as years of raw-material, process and product qualification work. (business-standard.com) In defence, the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s Vehicle Research and Development Establishment unveiled tracked and wheeled Vikram VT-21 infantry combat vehicle platforms in Ahilyanagar on April 26, with DRDO chairman Samir Kamat saying the target for induction is 2029 after trials. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) Those projects share the same pattern: new domestic capacity, followed by long testing and approval cycles before full-scale deployment. The B-28 will face that same sequence after the first train is built in 2027. (indianexpress.com) (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)