Dedicating Shatabdi successor Vande Bharat Express to the jawans martyred in the heinous terror attack in Kashmir on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off India’s first semi-high speed train from New Delhi railway station on Friday.
Booking on IRCTC for the new train has already opened; the deadly terror attack, however, marred its inauguration.
Touted as India’s fastest train, the historic Make in India project will begin commercial operations from February 17.
The self-propelled train’s unveiling was a affair in the wake of the attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal was onboard for the inaugural journey along with Railway said going ahead with the inauguration despite the attack is a befitting answer to terrorists. On its inaugural run, the train achieved a speed of 130 .
At the launch of the train, Modi observed a two-minute silence for the slain CRPF personnel.
“I am grateful to designers and engineers behind the Vande Bharat Express, which will take its first [inaugural] trip from Delhi to Varanasi today. With our sincerity and in the last 4.5 years, we have tried to improve railways,” he said.
Itinerary and fare
Train-18, recently renamed as Vande Bharat Express, will travel five days a week from Delhi to Varanasi (776 km) in nine hours and 45 minutes at a maximum speed of 160-180 . This includes a 40-minute halt each at Kanpur and Allahabad.
The tickets were put up for sale online after the project was announced as complete and ready to run. A chair car ticket costs Rs 1,760, while executive class fare amounts to Rs 3,310. According to NDTV, a senior railway official has informed that tickets of the first commercial run on February 17 are sold out.
fare rules wont apply to this train. The chair car fare is 1.4 times the base price of Shatabdi Express running the same distance, while that of the executive class is 1.3 times that of a first-class air-conditioned ticket of the premium train.
Facilities onboard
The train has 16 air-conditioned coaches with plush purple interiors; of these, two are class with a capacity to seat a total of 1,128 passengers.
Every seat has dual-mode lighting that a passenger can according to his/her tastes. All coaches have automatic doors, GPS-based audio-visual passenger information system, and onboard hotspot/Wi-Fi; not to mention, all its toilets are type.
Airline-like menu on offer
For food and beverages, each coach of the high-speed train has a pantry facility to serve hot mealsmorning tea, breakfast, lunch, evening tea, and dinner. Passengers will get palatable dishes from high-end brands, such as Nescafe, Chaayos, Pind Balluchi, and Landmark Hotel.
Executive class passengers will have to pay Rs 399 for the while the rate for chair car is Rs 344.
Why it should matter to you
The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai , designed, engineered, manufactured, and developed the Vande Bharat Express in 18 months. Experts have hailed its indigenous make, helmed by General Manager Sudhanshu Mani, as an unparalleled achievement for India’s heavy automobile industry.
The luxury train also takes power and energy concerns under consideration. To that end, it runs on a regenerative braking system, which can save up to 30% electrical energy.
With state-of-the-art bogies and underslung propulsion system, the train can accelerate and decelerate faster, thereby reducing the total journey time significantly. According to ICF officials, the train will be 15-20% faster in terms of total journey time.
Speaking to reporters onboard the express, Goyal said it will offer a convenient passage by reducing commute time on the Delhi-Varanasi route to eight hours from the earlier 13-14, taken by other trains.
India’s fastest engine-less train has suffered stone-pelting during trial runs. Hence, to passengers’ safety, its coaches have special shatter-proof window frames.
Prarthana Mitra is a staff writer at Qrius