Bengal: Second Vande Bharat Express to start services soon between Howrah-Puri
The first Vande Bharat Express train commenced its services in West Bengal on December 30 last year. The train connects the city of Howrah with New Jalpaiguri.
The Indian Railways last week conducted the trial run of the Howrah-Puri Vande Bharat Express train, in its next step to provide a second such semi-high-speed train to the state of West Bengal. This train will ferry passengers between Bengal's Howrah and Odisha's Puri. This means that pilgrims and tourists flocking to Puri, the abode of Lord Jagannath, will find it easier to travel by means of the new Vande Bharat Express.
The train will halt at stations including Kharagpur, Bhadrak, Balasore, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, and Khurda. The trial run of the train was conducted on Friday around 6:10am. The train is expected to leave for Howrah in the early morning and then return to Puri around 12:35pm the same day. However, the date of the commencement of its services is yet to be finalised.
“The semi-high-speed train is likely to flag off very soon. As of now, no final date has been decided for the commercial operations of the train,” Aditya Choudhary, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of Southern Eastern Railway said.
The first Vande Bharat Express train in West Bengal commenced its services on December 30 last year. The train connects the city of Howrah with New Jalpaiguri. The Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express covers a distance of 564 km distance in just 7.5 hours. The train which runs six days a week has three stoppages - Barsoi, Malda and Bolpur.
The Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat train was the seventh to launch after the Varanasi-New Delhi, Katra-New Delhi, Mumbai Central-Gandhinagar, New Delhi - Amb Andaura, Chennai-Mysuru and Bilaspur-Nagpur Vande Bharat Express trains.
(With inputs from agencies)