Odisha: Howrah-Puri Vande Bharat Express flagged off

Bhubaneswar: The Howrah-Puri Vande Bharat Express has been flagged off from Puri today that is on May 18, 2023. The train is scheduled to run six days a week, said reliable reports. Reports say that the train will have a total of seven (7) stoppages.

At the flag-off were present Odisha Governor Professor Ganeshi Lal, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Central Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Ashwini Vaishnaw. The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi had attended the flag-off ceremony on video conferencing.

The CM on the occasion requested the PM to come physically and inaugurate the airport at Puri. He also urged PM Modi to sanction funds for a second railway track from Puri to Konark. The CM further thanked the PM for the first Vande Bharat Express of Odisha. He requested the PM to start two more Vande Bharat Expresses in Odisha.

The information about the stoppages had been provided by the Government of India Ministry of Railways.

FIND THE ENTIRE SCHEDULE HERE: 

Howrah-Puri #VandeBharatExpress to run 6 days a week. It will have seven (7) stoppages #Odisha #TRAIN pic.twitter.com/iCoRjsTcO7

— Kalinga TV (@Kalingatv) May 16, 2023

The first full trial run of the Vande Bharat Express in Odisha had taken place on April 28, 2023 and was successful. The trial route of the train was from Howrah to Puri and then back.

The Puri-Howrah Vande Bharat express started at 6:10 am from Howrah. Then it will touched the stations namely Kharagpur, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Cuttack where it will stopped for 2 minutes. After that, it reached Bhubaneswar and Khurda where it stopped  for 2 minutes each. Then the train will reached Puri at 12:32 pm.

After the first full trial run of the Howrah-Puri Vande Bharat Express. The Odisha Transport Minister Tukuni Sahu wrote a letter to Central Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on April 28, 2023. In the letter, she urged him to increase the number of Vande Bharat Express trains in Odisha to at least three.

She wrote, “I would like to request you to introduce Vande Bharat Express trains through Odisha to meet the growing aspirations of people. Request you to introduce the Vande Bharat Express train between Puri and Howrah to offer faster travel options to passengers.”

It is worth mentioning that, the flag off of the Vande Bharat Express might be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Vande Bharat Express is fully manufactured in India and is India’s first semi-high-speed train. It started its first journey in India from New Delhi to Varanasi.  Vande Bharat Express has several unique features like bio-vacuum toilets, full Wi-Fi onboard, fully automatic doors, advanced GPS based systems, the trains also boast of disabled friendly zones. The ticket of the trains include the price of two meals onboard the express.