West Bengal will get its first Vande Bharat Express from December 30 as the Prime Minister will inaugurate the premium train between Howrah to New Jalpaiguri, with stop at Santiniketan – the abode of poet, philosopher and social reformer late Rabindranath Tagore. It will also be east India’s first Vande Bharat Express.
The schedule of the train, issued on Thursday by the Ministry of Railways, shows a two-minute stoppage at Bolpur-Santiniketan apart from Malda Town and Barsoi stations. Initially, as per the previous plan shared by the Prime Minister’s Office, the train had stoppage at Malda Town, Barsoi and Kishanganj stations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the Vande Bharat Express at the Howrah railway station.
Earlier on Thursday, West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar wrote to Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw demanding a stop at Bolpur-Santiniketan station. In the letter, which he also shared on Twitter, Majumdar wrote: “We are already aware of the train schedule, which will run from Howrah Station to New Jalpaiguri Station with stoppage at New Farakka and Malda Station, but there is a huge demand from the people of West Bengal for a stoppage at Bolpur/Santiniketan Station where world famous Visva Bharati University was established by Visva Kavi Guru Rabindra Nath Tagore and situated at about 200 km from Kolkata.”
He said students and tourists from all over the world come to Santiniketan/Bolpur regularly and in absence of any air transport facility, a stoppage of Vande Bharat will be welcomed by everyone.
The 22301/22302 Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express is an ultra-modern semi high speed train, equipped with state-of-the-art passenger amenities. It will run six days a week, except Wednesday. Compared to the other trains, this Vande Bharat will save about three hours of travel time between the stations as it will complete the journey in 7 hours and 30 minutes. This is the seventh Vande Bharat train in India.
The first Vande Bharat Express train was flagged off on February 15, 2019, between New Delhi and Varanasi. The sixth such train was flagged on December 11 between Nagpur and Bilaspur. The other trains are running between: Gandhinagar-Mumbai Central; New Delhi- Amb Andaura; New Delhi-Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra; and Mysuru-Puratchi Thalaivar Dr MGR Chennai Central.
The Railway Ministry is gearing up for the challenging target of launching 75 Vande Bharat trains over the course of 75 weeks of ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, as announced by PM Modi on this Independence Day.
According to the ministry documents seen by News18, at least 35 Vande Bharat rakes have been approved in the Coach Production Programme for the current financial year, while 67 have been approved for the next financial year (2023-24).
In her Budget Speech 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced that 400 new-generation Vande Bharat trains will be developed and manufactured in the next three years. These will have better energy efficiency and passenger experience.
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