Bhubaneswar: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan flagged off the new LHB Rake of Bhubaneswar-Jagadalpur-Bhubaneswar Hirakhand Express through video conferencing from Rail Bhawan in New Delhi today.
The Railways decided to run Bhubaneswar-Jagadalpur-Bhubaneswar Hirakhand Express with modern Linke-Hofmann-Busch (LHB) coaches by replacing conventional coaches running at present with an aim to provide better comfort and jerk free journey to the passengers.
08445/08446 Bhubaneswar-Jagadalpur-Bhubaneswar Special Hirakhand Express w.e.f. 10th September, 2021 from Bhubaneswar & w.e.f. 11th September, 2021 from Jagadalpur will run with LHB coaches.
Special Hirakhand Express will now run with a load combination of 12 coaches as earlier, i.e. 01 AC 2 Tier, 02 AC-3 Tier, 04 Sleeper Class, Three Second Class Seating and 02 Guard cum Luggage & Divyangjan Coaches. Only conventional coaches will be replaced by LHB coaches.
LHB coaches are anti-telescopic, which means they do not flip in case of a collision, safer, lighter, more comfortable and jerk free. Replacement of ICF conventional coaches phase wise with LHB coaches is being done from safety point of view.
Odisha Ministers Padmanabha Behera and Ashok Chandra Panda, MPs Aparajita Sarangi & Saptagiri Sankar Ullaka, MLAs Suresh Ku Routray, Tara Prasad Bahinipati, Ananta Narayan Jena, Purna Chandra Swain, Rajendra Kumar Sahu, Susant Kumar Rout, Makaranda Muduli & Prabhu Jani graced the occasion as Guests of Honours at Bhubaneswar Railway Station.
Koraput MLA Raghuram Padal also attended the event from Koraput Railway Station. Bastar MP Deepak Baij, Jagdalpur MLA Rekhchand Jain from Jagdalpur Railway Station and other dignitaries also graced the flagging-off ceremony from Brahmapur Railway Station, Srikakulam Road Railway Station Vizianagaram Railway Station.
Ms Kalinga