In a remarkable feat of historical achievement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate nine Vande Bharat Express trains on Sunday. With this, all States across the country will now be connected with these semi-high-speed trains.
In June, Modi inaugurated eight Vande Bharat trains on different routes.
Among these nine trains, the Ministry of Railways led by Ashwani Vaishnaw is poised to introduce two trains for West Bengal’s Howrah and Tamil Nadu’s Chennai, with one each for Kerala, Odisha, Telangana, Gujarat, and the poll-bound Rajasthan.
The nine trains which will be flagged off on Sunday are on routes — Ranchi-Howrah, Patna-Howrah, Vijayawada-Chennai, Tirunelveli-Chennai, Rourkela- Puri, Udaipur-Jaipur, Kasaragod-Thiruvanantha puram, Jamnagar-Ahmedabad and Hyderabad-Bengaluru.
The inaugural Tirunelveli-Chennai Vande Bharat Express train will leave from Tirunelveli Junction 6 am and reach Chennai around 1:50 pm, while the return journey will begin at 2:50 pm on all days except Tuesdays.
According to reports, the locomotive will be operated at an average speed of 83.30 km an hour and halt at Virudhunagar, Madurai, Dindigul and Tiruchi.
Meanwhile, this will also be Tamil Nadu’s third Vande Bharat route after the launch of Chennai-Mysuru Vande Bharat Express in November last year and subsequently the Chennai-Coimbatore Vande Bharat train.
Odisha’s second Vande Bharat express on Puri-Rourkela route is also set to be flagged off on Sunday.
The full trial run of the Puri-Rourkela Vande Bharat Express was conducted on Wednesday. The train will connect the coastal districts of the State to its western region.
Earlier, it was also reported that the semi-high speed train will cover the distance of 505 km in 7 hours and 30 minutes from Puri-Rourkela and 7 hours and 45 minutes on the down line i.e. Rourkela to Puri.
Bengaluru and Hyderabad Vande Bharat train will link the two tech cities and will cover the 610 km distance in 8.5 hours.
Speaking about its tentative schedule, the train will depart from Kacheguda in Hyderabad at 5.30 am and will reach Yeshwantpur around 2 pm.
In the return journey, the train will depart at 2:45pm and reach Kacheguda at 11:15 pm.
The semi-high speed train is likely to have 5 stops — Mahabubnagar, Kurnool City, Anantapur, Dhone, Dharmavaram.
Vande Bharat express between Vijayawada-Chennai will cover the distance between the two cities in 6 hours and 40 minutes.
Earlier this month, Vaishnaw had announced that Madhya Pradesh’s Neemuch would soon get a Vande Bharat Express.
Vande Bharat Express is an indigenously manufactured, semi-high-speed, self-propelled train. The train has state-of-the-art passenger amenities, providing passengers with a faster, more comfortable and more convenient travel experience.
