PM Narendra Modi to inaugurate new Vande Bharat train on December 11

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the sixth semi-high speed Vande Bharat train in the country on December 11. The new Vande Bharat train will operate on the Bilaspur (Chattisgarh)-Nagpur (Maharashtra) route, an Indian Railways said on Sunday.

The train will reportedly operate six days a week and will complete one part of the journey in about five-and-a-half hours. According to the official, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Bilaspur- Nagpur Vande Bharat train in Nagpur on Sunday that is December 11.

“The Vande bharat train will depart from 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”, said the officer. The superfast trains currently take around seven hours to reach Nagpur. However, the new train is much faster than them as it can cover the same distance in around five-and-a-half hours.

The Southeast Central Railways (SECR) will operate the train, as per a second official who is familiar with the matter. The train will have scheduled stops at Raipur, Durg and Gondia.

Another Vande Bharat train is likely to be launched between Secunderabad and Vijayawada in 2023, the official also said. This will be the first indigenously-built semi high-speed rail in South Central Railway (SCR) and second such train in south India.

The Indian Railways plans to inaugurate 75 Vande Bharat trains by August next year. The new-generation Vande Bharat train was first inaugurated on the Mumbai- Ahmedabad route in October this year.

All the coaches of the semi-high-speed train are equipped with automatic doors, GPS-based audio-visual passenger information system, onboard hotspot Wi-Fi for entertainment purposes, and comfortable seats.

However, the first Vande Bharat Express train was flagged off on the New Delhi- Kanpur- Allahabad-Varanasi route on February 15, 2019.