The Indian Railways conducted the first trial run of the Vande Bharat Express between Patna and Ranchi on Monday morning in Jharkhand.
According to the Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of the East Central Railway (ECR) (Hajipur zone) Birendra Kumar, the trial run was slated for June 11 but it was moved to Monday due to a two-day state bandh organised by a student group.
People gathered on the platform to see the Patna-Ranchi Vande Bharat Express make a trial run to Gaya Railway Station.
Earlier, Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that Vande Bharat trains will start covering all the states by June.
Addressing a press conference in the national capital, the Railway Minister said that they have a target to connect 200 cities with the Vande Bharat train by the middle of the next year, adding that the production work is going at a fast pace.
The state-of-the-art Vande Bharat Train is fitted with the modern train collision avoidance system (TCAS), also known as Kavach, and comes with numerous amenities such as bio-vacuum toilets, 360-degree revolving chairs, divyang-friendly washrooms and seat handles, among others, and is designed to provide an experience similar to that of air-travel to the passengers.
The first Vande Bharat Express train was flagged off on February 15, 2019, on the New Delhi Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi route.
The Vande Bharat Express can run up to a maximum speed of 160 kmph.
In his address to the nation on August 15, 2021, from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that during the 75 weeks of the Amrit Mahotsav of Independence, 75 Vande Bharat trains will connect every corner of the country.
In the Union Budget 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that four hundred new-generation Vande Bharat Trains will be manufactured during the next three years. (ANI)
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