Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off nine Vande Bharat trains connecting religious and tourist destinations across 11 states, on Sunday. Out of these states – Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha, Jharkhand and Gujarat – three are poll-bound.
The prime minister will flag off the trains via video conferencing. Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will also take part in the inauguration programme. These trains will provide faster connectivity across these 11 states.
Here’s a list of the nine new Vande Bharat Express trains:
- Kerala Kasaragod-Thiruvananthapuram
- Rajasthan Jaipur-Udaipur
- Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu Vijayawada-Chennai
- Tamil Nadu Tirunelveli-Chennai
- Gujarat Jamnagar-Ahmedabad
- Jharkhand and West Bengal Ranchi-Howrah
- Telangana and Karnataka Secunderabad (Kacheguda)-Bengaluru (Yesvantpur)
- Odisha Rourkela-Puri
- Bihar and West Bengal Patna-Howrah
According to news agency PTI, an official statement said: “These trains are a step towards realising the prime minister’s vision of improving connectivity across the country and providing world-class facilities to rail passengers.”
It added: “The Vande Bharat trains will be the fastest train along the routes of their operation and will help save considerable time of the passengers.”
What will this do for travel time?
Compared to the fastest train as of now on the routes, Vande Bharat trains will cut travel time between destinations by three hours in the Rourkela-Bhubaneswar-Puri and Kasaragod-Thiruvananthapuram routes; more than two and a half hours for Hyderabad-Bengaluru; more than two hours for Tirunelveli-Madurai-Chennai; about one hour for Ranchi-Howrah, Patna-Howrah and Jamnagar-Ahmedabad; about half an hour for between Udaipur and Jaipur.
Which are the important destinations?
The Rourkela-Bhubaneswar-Puri and Tirunelveli-Madurai-Chennai trains will connect the important religious towns of Puri and Madurai.
The Vijayawada-Chennai Vande Bharat train will operate via the Renigunta route and provide connectivity to Tirupati.
The new trains are expected to provide a smooth travel experience as the festival season is upon us.
The Indian Railways is also planning to launch a sleeper version of the Vande Bharat and Vande Metro before this fiscal ends next year. The semi-high speed train series will also have a non-air conditioned push-pull version with 22 coaches and a locomotive, which will be launched in October 2024, said railway authorities.
The sleeper version will be rolled out by March 2024. The coaches for both the sleeper version as well as the metro are being made by the ICF in Chennai. Vande Metro will be ready by the end of 2023 and rolled out in January or February next year.
(With PTI inputs)
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