West Bengal to get its first Vande Bharat Express on December 30

Ahead of New Year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off West Bengal's first Vande Bharat Express on the busy Howrah-New Jalpaiguri route on December 30, according to reports.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the Vande Bharat Express service from Howrah to New Jalpaiguri on December 30," Eastern Railway spokesperson Ekalabya Chakraborty told PTI.

It will be the first Vande Bharat Express to operate in West Bengal as well as on the Eastern parts of the country. So far, a total of six Vande Bharat Express trains are running in the country. These trains are running between Delhi-Varanasi, Gandhinagar-Mumbai Central, Bilaspur-Nagpur, New Delhi-Andaura, Delhi-Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra, and Chennai-Mysuru.

The new Vande Bharat Express will reportedly take around 7.5 hours on its run in both the directions and will be run six days a week.

The train will leave the Howrah station at 6 am to reach the New Jalpaiguri station at 1.30 pm, and after a one-hour stopover, it will leave the north Bengal station at 2.30 pm and reach Howrah at 10 pm, Chakraborty stated.

The blue and white 16-coach new rake has already arrived at the Liluah loco shed of Eastern Railway.

Meanwhile, BJP State President Sukanta Majumdar, took to Twitter to thank PM Modi for gifting the people of Bengal with Vande Bharat Express. "Extremely thankful to Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi Ji for gifting the people of North Bengal with Vande Bharat express (HWH-NJP). While the State Govt. keeps depriving the people of North Bengal, Modiji will flag off the train on 30th December 2022," he said in a tweet.

(With inputs from PTI)

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