Vande Bharat Sleepers to be launched once second train arrives by Oct 15: Vaishnaw
New Delhi (PTI): Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday said the Vande Bharat Sleeper trains will be launched once the second train is ready for regular service.
One train is ready for launch at Shakur Basti Coaching Depot in Delhi after undergoing necessary trials and testing, according to officials.
Briefing the media, Vaishnaw said that the second train is being manufactured and will possibly be ready by October 15, 2025.
"Both the trains will be launched together," he said.
The minister emphasised that the second train is important to maintain the continuity of regular services.
"That's why we are waiting for a second rake. Once we get it, we will decide any route and start operations," Vaishnaw added.
Speculation is rife that the trains will be launched between New Delhi and Patna as Bihar is going to polls by the end of the year.
Vaishnaw, along with Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu, briefed the media on the status of the existing and upcoming railway projects in Punjab.
They said the upcoming 18-kilometre Rajpura-Mohali line will connect the area to Chandigarh via the shortest route on the Ambala-Amritsar main line.
Besides providing direct connectivity between Rajpura and Mohali and reducing travel distance by approximately 66 kilometres, the rail link will also ease traffic on the existing Rajpura-Ambala route and shorten the Ambala-Morinda link.
Vaishnaw said the Railway Ministry has also proposed to launch a new Vande Bharat train between New Delhi and Firozpur Cantonment, which will cover the Faridkot, Bhatinda (W), Dhuri, Patiala, Ambala Cantonment, Kurukshetra and Panipat stations.
According to the Railways, the train will cover a distance of 486 kilometres between Delhi and Firozpur Cantonment in 6 hours and 40 minutes.
"I will request the Prime Minister to approve the Firozpur-Delhi Vande Bharat train," Vaishnaw said.
The ministers shared nine important railway projects that were commissioned after 2014.
These include the new Nangal Dam-Daulat Pur Chowk line (61 kilometres, Rs 672 crore), and the doubling of Chakki Bank-Bharoli line (3 kilometres, Rs 15 crore), Jakhal-Mansa line (45 kilometres, Rs 163 crore), JUC-SuchiPind line (4 kilometres, Rs 24 crore), Ambala-Chandigarh line (45 kilometres, Rs 338 crore), Mansa-Bhatinda line (49 kilometres, Rs 216 crore), Amritsar-Chheharta line (7 kilometres, Rs 31 crore), Jalandhar-Jammu Tawi line (211 kilometres, Rs 850 crore) and Rajpura-Bathinda line (173 kilometres, Rs 2,459 crore).
They also introduced seven railway projects under execution.
These include Nangal Dam-Talwara new line (123 kilometres, Rs 2,018 crore), Bhanupalli-Bilaspur-Beri new line (63 kilometres, Rs 6,753 crore), and Ferozpur-Patti new line (26 kilometres, Rs 300 crore), and the doubling of Mansa-Bhatinda line (80 kilometres, Rs 449 crore), Ludhiana-Kila Raipur line (17 kilometres, Rs 238 crore), Ludhiana-Mullanpur line (21 kilometres, Rs 295 crore) and Alal-Himmatana line (13 kilometres, Rs 174 crore).
Vaishnaw said 30 stations are being redeveloped under the Amrit Bharat station redevelopment scheme.
Highlighting achievements in the trains' running schedules, Vaishnaw said that 29 rail divisions -- including Malda, Mysore, Sialdah, Nagpur and Trivandrum -- have achieved 90 per cent punctuality.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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