NEW DELHI: In a major push to enhance rail connectivity in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on March 12, flagged off 10 new Vande Bharat trains virtually from Ahmedabad.
As a result of these latest additions, the number of Vande Bharat trains in India has risen to an impressive 51, covering a whopping 45 routes.
The routes where two Vande Bharat trains will operate are Kasaragod–Thiruvananthapuram, Delhi to Katra, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Delhi to Varanasi, Mysuru-Chennai and now Visakhapatnam–Secunderabad.
The state of Jharkhand is set to get its third Vande Bharat train. The first, which runs between Ranchi and Patna, was flagged off on June 27, 2023. The second, operating between Ranchi and Howrah, was started from September 24, 2023. Now, Jharkhand will get one in the Ranchi-Varanasi route that will become operational on March 18.
Notably, Delhi has the highest number of Vande Bharat trains complying in its route and the national capital is now connected with Amb Andaura, Amritsar, Ayodhya, Bhopal, Dehradun and Khajuraho.
India's financial capital Mumbai follows suit with six while Chennai hosts five. Karnataka's Mysuru gears up to welcome its second Vande Bharat train.
The new routes that the Vande Bharat Express will operate on include Dehradun to Lucknow, Patna to Lucknow and New Jalpaiguri to Patna.
Moreover, these trains will also connect Bhubaneswar with Visakhapatnam, Kalaburagi (formerly Gulbarga) with Bengaluru, Ranchi with Varanasi and Khajuraho with Delhi.
Additionally, Ahmedabad and Mumbai will get the second set of Vande Bharat trains, as do Secunderabad and Visakhapatnam, as well as Bengaluru and Chennai.
Saurabh Prasad, the Divisional Railway Manager of Waltair Division confirmed that of the two Vande Bharat trains, one will operate between Visakhapatnam and Bhubaneswar while the other will run between Visakhapatnam and Secunderabad.
Prasad told news agency ANI that these two new Vande Bharat Express trains are in addition to the existing service on this route.
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