CHATTISGARH (Metro Rail News): Indian Railways officials acquainted with the situation said Prime Minister Narendra Modi would inaugurate the nation’s sixth semi-high-speed Vande Bharat train on December 11, which will run on the Bilaspur (Chattisgarh)-Nagpur (Maharashtra) line.
According to the official, the train will run six days a week and complete one leg of the journey in about five-and-a-half hours.
“The Bilaspur- Nagpur Vande Bharat train will be inaugurated on December 11 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Nagpur,” the official said.
“This train will leave Bilaspur at around 6.45am and reach Nagpur at around 12.15pm. Similarly, the train will leave Nagpur at 2pm to reach Bilaspur at 7.35pm. Currently superfast trains take around seven hours to reach Nagpur, however this train will cover the distance in around five-and-a-half hours,” said the official.
According to a second official familiar with the matter, the train will be operated by the Southeast Central Railways (SECR) and will have scheduled stops at Raipur, Durg and Gondia.
The source added that another Vande Bharat train between Secunderabad and Vijayawada will start running in 2023. The official continued, “This will be the second train in south India and the first indigenously-built semi-high-speed rail in South Central Railway (SCR).”
On the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route, a new-generation Vande Bharat train debuted in October this year. By August next year, the Railways will launch 75 Vande Bharat trains.
The semi-high-speed train’s coaches are all outfitted with automatic doors, a GPS-based audiovisual passenger information system, an onboard hotspot for Wi-Fi, and comfy seats.
The inaugural Vande Bharat Express train was signalled out on the New Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi line on February 15, 2019.
