After the successful launch of the first Vande Bharat Express train in Odisha, the Ministry of Railways has planned to introduce another semi-high speed train for the state. This was announced by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday.
The first Vande Bharat Express train is running between Puri and Howrah. This is also the second blue and white colour train for West Bengal. It was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through video conferencing from New Delhi.
Route of Odisha’s second Vande Bharat Express:-
The second new age train of Odisha will ply between Puri and Rourkela.
Distance and Travel time of Puri-Rourkela Vande Bharat Express:-
The Puri-Rourkela Vande Bharat will cover a distance of 524 km in less than nine hours. Presently, the fastest train between the two cities is Tapaswini Express. It covers the same distance in 10 hours and 25 minutes.
Stoppages of Puri-Rourkela Vande Bharat Express:-
During its journey between Puri and Rourkela, the semi-high speed train will make a halt at three railway stations. These are – Bhubaneshwar, Cuttack, and Angul.
Fare of Puri-Rourkela Vande Bharat Express:-
The fare of Puri-Rourkela Vande Bharat Express in both the class – AC Chair Car and Executive AC Chair Car, is likely to be between Rs 1,200 to Rs 2,000.
Indian Railways has planned to operate blue and white colour trains across all the routes in the country. For this, the national transporter has also escalated the production of Vande Bharat trains. The efforts are going on to start the manufacturing of this new age trains at two of its factories – Rae Bareilly-based Modern Coach Factory, and Latur-based Marathwada Rail Coach Factory.
Earlier this year, the parliamentary standing committee on Railways had expressed concern over the production of the ultra modern train. It had asked the Ministry of Railways to raise the production to meet the target and the aspirations of the rail commuters.