PM Modi flagged off five new Vande Bharat Express trains on Tuesday from Rani Kamalapati Railway Station in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. These new 5 Vande Bharat Express trains have been said to highly benefit tourists.
These new Vande Bharat Express trains include Bhopal-Indore Vande Bharat Express, Bhopal-Jabalpur Vande Bharat Express, Goa-Mumbai Vande Bharat Express, Ranchi-Patna Vande Bharat Express, and Dharwad-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express. Also, all of these services have been touted to bring plenty of revenue to the government.
Speaking about the Vande Bharat Express trains, the first service commenced on February 15, 2019, between Delhi and Varanasi. This service was also flagged off by PM Modi from the New Delhi railway station.
Thanks to the Vande Bharat Express train, the travel time between New Delhi and Varanasi was reduced to just 8 hours, with an approximate 15 per cent reduction in travel time. Later, the same year, a second Vande Bharat Express train was commissioned to run between New Delhi and Katra.
That being said, the Vande Bharat Express trains have been built to provide fast and modern service between major Indian cities. This means the Vande Bharat Express trains will gradually replace Shatabdi Express trains that were introduced way back in 1988.
Some of the noteworthy facilities in Vande Bharat Express trains include aircraft-style rotatable seats, large windows, CCTV surveillance, automatic doors, odour control systems, sensor-based taps, bio-vacuum toilets, smoke alarms, and more. The train also comes with generous overhead racks for luggage storage.
Though Vande Bharat Express trains have been tested at speeds above 180km/h, the maximum permissible speed is set as 160km/h due to safety concerns. Also, most of the Vande Bharat Express trains have been limited to running at speeds up to 130km/h due to track limitations.
That being said, there are 23 Vande Bharat Express trains currently operating in India. This includes the newly flagged-off Vande Bharat Express train services as well. It is also been widely reported that a 16-coach Vande Bharat Express train costs approximately Rs 115 crores.
Though the headline figures make Vande Bharat Express trains truly remarkable, a little digging shows that the existing infrastructures are severely hindering the capability of these trains. Also, it is time for the government to spend money on improving the infrastructure to support more such high-speed trains in India.
