Produced by: Hitansh Gaur
PM Narendra Modi will virtually inaugurate five new Vande Bharat routes on Tuesday. The inauguration for one of them was delayed due to the horrific Balasore accident, which resulted in 275 deaths and left more than 1,000 injured.
The five new additions to the list of Vande Bharat trains are: Patna – Ranchi Vande Bharat Express Bhopal – Jabalpur Vande Bharat Express Bhopal – Indore Vande Bharat Express Mumbai – Goa Vande Bharat Express Bengaluru – Dharwad Vande Bharat Express
The new train will be operational on six days except on Tuesday. The train will depart from Patna at 7 am reaching Ranchi by 1 pm. Then, it will depart from Ranchi at 4:15 pm and reach Patna by 10:05 pm. The train will have five stops in between at Gaya Junction, Koderma, Hazaribagh Junction, Barka Kana and Mesra.
The new train between Bhopal and Jabalpur will cover a distance of 337 kms in 4 hours and 35 minutes. The semi-high speed train will leave Bhopal at 9:25 am reaching Jabalpur by 2 pm in the afternoon. It will start its return journey at 2:30 pm to reach Bhopal by 7:10 pm. The train will stop at four stations in between – Narmadapuram, Itarsi, Piparia and Narsinghpur. Bhopal-Jabalpur Vande Bharat Express will run only six days a week as there will be no service on Sunday.
The semi-high speed train between Bhopal and Indore will be available six days a week, with no service on Sunday. The train will have only one stop at Ujjain. The journey will start from Indore at 5:50 am, reaching Ujjain at 6:40 am. The train will leave Ujjain at 6:45 am and reach Bhopal by 9:10 am. The return journey will start at 7:25 pm from Bhopal reaching Ujjain at 9:30 pm for a five minute stop. The train will finally reach Indore at 10:45 pm.
The Mumbai-Goa route of the Vande Bharat train was supposed to be inaugurated on June 3 but got delayed due to the triple train accident at Balasore. Mumbai-Goa Vande Bharat Express will cover a distance of 586 kms in just over 10 hours, reducing the time by 2 hours. The train will operate thrice a week from Mumbai on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while from Madgaon on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. There will be no service on Sundays. The train will depart from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus at 5:25 am reaching Madgaon at 3:30 pm. From Madgaon, the train will leave at 12:20 pm and reach Mumbai at 10:25 pm. The train has scheduled stops at Dadar, Thane, Panvel, Khed, Ratnagiri and Kankavali in Maharashtra and one stop in Goa at Thivim.
Karnataka’s new Vande Bharat Express will cover a distance of 490 kilometres in 6 hours and 13 minutes. The train will depart from Bengaluru at 5:45 am to reach Dharwad station by 11:58 am. The train has three scheduled stops at Yashwantpur, Devanagere and Hubballi. The train service will be available on six days a week except Tuesday.
The ticket prices for the five Vande Bharat trains are: Patna-Ranchi: Rs 1,025 to Rs 2,110 Bhopal-Jabalpur: Rs 1,085 to Rs 1,925 (expected) Bhopal-Indore: Rs 950 to Rs 1,525 Mumbai-Goa: Rs 1,815 to Rs 3,535 Bengaluru Dharwad: Rs 1,205 to Rs 2,395
Vande Bharat is a semi-high speed indigenously manufactured train with features like GPS-based passenger information system, sleek interiors, bio-vacuum toilets with touch-free features, diffused LED lighting, charging points under each seat, individual touch-based reading lights, and concealed roller blinds. Each coach is fitted with a 32-inch screen and equipped with a mini pantry facility.