Vande Bharat Express, which is popularly known as Train 18, was flagged off by Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday and will begin its commercial run between New Delhi and Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra October 5 (Saturday) onwards.
Ahead of the inauguration, Shah congratulated the Rail Ministry for giving J&K the gift on the occasion of Navratri. “Travel for Vaishno Devi yatris will now become easier… Gandhiji inspired the entire world without giving any big and long speeches… his biggest message was swadeshi and today, we have a swadeshi railway being inaugurated,” the minister said.
Train Id 22439 New Delhi-Katra Vande Bharat Express will leave from the Delhi railway location at 6 am to arrive Katra at 2 pm.the train will pause at Ambala Cantt, Ludhiana and Jammu Tawi for two minutes each.
On the return trip the identical day, train Id 22440 Katra-Delhi Vande Bharat Express will depart from the Katra railway station at 3 pm to arrive at the Delhi railway station at 11 pm.
Train 18 will utilize on all days of the week except for Tuesday.
The train will take down the travel period between Delhi and Katra, the last station on the way to Vaishno Devi temple, to eight hours from the current 12 hours. Exactly like the earlier variant which moves between Delhi and Varanasi, the railways has not administered the effective fare policy on the new Vande Bharat train for Delhi-Katra.
The merest fare for moving between New Delhi (NDLS) to Sri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra (SVDK) will be Rs 1,630 and the culmination will be Rs 3,015.
The luxury AC chair car aid with 16 coaches is an engine-less self-propelled trainset which provides for quicker speedup and deceleration, hence reducing journey time by 40 percent.
The all-new variant has a larger room compared to the primary Train 18 or Vande Bharat Express.
It also has shutters with a specialized equipment to guard against stone-pelting and a cattle keeper in the exterior to stop the damage to the train.
The first Vande Bharat Express was waved off by PM Narendra Modi. The railways are anticipated to produce 40 more such trains by 2022, according to senior officials.
