Vande Bharat Express maker Sudhanshu Mani shares his thoughts

By B. Sreekantswamy

Vande Bharat Express train, India’s maiden indigenously built semi-high-speed train has been the talk of the town ever since it was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Feb. 15, 2019. Incidentally, the first route to be connected by Vande Bharat was Delhi-Varanasi route (Varanasi is represented in Lok Sabha by PM Modi).

Sudhanshu Mani (S. Mani), the man who made it possible as the General Manager of Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, before his retirement from the Indian Railways, says ‘We still have a long way to go for the world to take notice of our achievement.’

S. Mani, as his name is printed on the business card, was in Mysuru on Feb. 11, to ‘Illuminate’ the young engineers with his rather inspiring talk, at a flagship event organised by L&T Technology Services (LTTS) and The National Institute of Engineering (NIE), Mysuru, at the Convocation Hall of Karnataka State Open University (KSOU).

Being a Fellow in Mechanical Engineering from London, Mani is an avid blogger as one can have a peek into his wide vista of knowledge on his blog ‘An Indecisive Indian’. As a writer, he has narrated the story behind making Vande Bharat Train (Formerly Train 18) in his book titled ‘My Train 18 Story’.

At short notice, Mani readily agreed to a quick chat with Star of Mysore (SOM), on the sidelines of the talk and the topic was obviously Vande Bharat, as Mysureans too are among its patrons for the rail is connecting Mysuru with Chennai via Bengaluru. Excerpts:

SOM: Ever since its launch, the Vande Bharat Express has been the talk of the world.

Sudhanshu Mani: No, (in a correcting tone) it’s been the talk of the country for now and for the world to take notice, we still have a long way to go. There is a difference between ‘pride and vanity’ and we should not let that ‘vanity’ sink deeper into our minds.

SOM: Accomplishing the task of building the train in 18 months was no mean feat. How was it possible?

Sudhanshu Mani: Human potential is inherent and nothing else makes it possible. My job was to steer them in the proper direction. Moreover, when I was made the General Manager of Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, I was in for a pleasant surprise as the team had a great capability. Moreover, as a team leader, I was driven by that angst (to meet the target). This is not just ‘Make in India.’ This is much more than that. Right from design to delivery, everything was done in India and everyone worked really hard to achieve the feat.

SOM: When the first train was on track, was there any apprehension, especially as many negative reviews started coming in?

Sudhanshu Mani: If you have not done anything wrong, nothing can go wrong. Yes, it turned into a heated debate in political circles, especially by Opposition parties, with so much hype built around the train. But, it (Vande Bharat) is not any particular political party’s train, but the country’s train. Negativity is a thing of the past now.