The wait for Kalaburagi, Khajuraho, Chandigarh and Prayagraj is finally over as the four cities got their first Vande Bharat on Tuesday.
For Kalaburagi and Khajuraho, it is the first Vande Bharat while for Prayagraj and Chandigarh it is the first dedicated train. The city in Uttar Pradesh is already connected as a stop in the Delhi-Varanasi Vande Bharat. Similarly, Chandigarh was a stoppage in the Delhi-Amb Andaura Vande Bharat but lacked a dedicated train.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated 10 new Vande Bharats on Tuesday, also giving Lucknow and Patna two each of these trains.
With the latest inauguration of the 10 trains, the total number of operational Vande Bharats crossed the half-century mark, with 51 trains running on 45 routes.
New Trains
The prime minister on Tuesday inaugurated trains between Ahmedabad-Mumbai; Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam; Mysuru-Chennai; Patna-Lucknow; New Jalpaiguri-Patna; Puri-Visakhapatnam; Lucknow-Dehradun; Kalaburagi-Bengaluru; Ranchi-Varanasi; and Khajuraho-Delhi.
He also flagged off the extension of four Vande Bharat trains — Ahmedabad-Jamnagar to Dwarka; Ajmer-Delhi to Chandigarh; Gorakhpur-Lucknow Vande Bharat till Prayagraj; and Thiruvananthapuram-Kasargod extended till Mangaluru.
Patna Connected with 4 Vande Bharats; Ranchi, Puri Get 3
Patna got two Vande Bharats on Tuesday — one for Lucknow and one for New Jalpaiguri — taking the total number of trains from the city to four. Bihar’s capital was already connected with Ranchi and Howrah through Vande Bharat trains.
With the inauguration of the Puri-Visakhapatnam Vande Bharat train, temple town Puri has three dedicated semi-high speed trains. The city was already connected with Rourkela and Howrah.
Similarly, after the Ranchi-Varanasi Vande Bharat, both the cities have three dedicated Vande Bharat each. Varanasi, which was home to the country’s first Vande Bharat, already has two dedicated trains for Delhi. For Rachi, the city was already connected to Howrah and Patna.
With the new Kalaburagi-Bengaluru Vande Bharat, Karnataka’s capital is connected with four dedicated semi-high speed trains. The city has dedicated trains for Dharwad, Hyderabad and Coimbatore.
New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal also has three dedicated Vande Bharat trains — one each for Patna, Howrah and Guwahati. Ahmedabad in Gujarat also has three dedicated trains — one each for Dwarka, Mumbai and Jodhpur.
On Tuesday, Uttar Pradesh’s capital Lucknow also got two Vande Bharat — one for Dehradun and another for Patna. The city now has two dedicated Vande Bharat trains and is a stoppage in the now-extended Gorakhpur-Prayagraj train.
Similarly, Dehradun has two dedicated Vande Bharat trains — one newly inaugurated train for Lucknow and an already functional one from Delhi.
10 dedicated Vande Bharat Trains from Delhi
After the inauguration of the new services, of the total 51 Vande Bharat trains, 10 have Delhi as the ultimate destination.
The city has direct Vande Bharat trains for Dehradun, Amb Andaura, Bhopal, Ayodhaya, Khajuraho and Amritsar. Delhi also has two trains for Varanasi and Katra each.
The Ajmer-Delhi Vande Bharat was a dedicated train from the national capital but has now been extended till Chandigarh. So Delhi has now become just a stoppage in the route.
Mumbai stood second among the cities with six dedicated trains — one each for Jalna, Madgaon, Sainagar Shirdi and Solapur. Two Vande Bharat trains run between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, with one of these running till Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
Chennai has five trains — one each for Tirunelveli, Coimbatore, and Vijayawada and two for Mysuru. Howrah has four dedicated trains – one each for Puri, Ranchi, New Jalpaiguri and Patna.
It is also important to note that of the 51 Vande Bharat trains, six are operational between the same destinations — Delhi-Katra; Delhi-Varanasi; Mumbai-Ahmedabad; Mysuru-Chennai; Visakhapatnam–Secunderabad; and Kasaragod–Thiruvananthapuram.
These new trains are probably the last set of Vande Bharats being flagged off by the prime minister in this term as the Lok Sabha elections are just around the corner.
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