With the Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating the fourth train of the Vande Bharat series in Himachal Pradesh’s Una, tracks are all set to reduce the travel-time from Chandigarh to Delhi just to 3 hours.
In a tweet shared by Union Minister Bhupinder Yadav, Modi is seen flagging off the new train.
Another Minister Piyush Goyel shared a video of the Prime Minister boarding the train and tweeted, “Adding new pace to progress! PM @NarendraModi ji travelling in Vande Bharat Express in Una, Himachal Pradesh.”
As per the reports of The Hindustan Times, the train with 16 coaches will run six days a week except Wednesday covering a distance of 412 km from Delhi to Amb Andaura in 5 hours 15 minutes. It will only have halts in Ambala Cantonment, Chandigarh, Anandpur Sahib and Una. This will effectively reduce the travel time between Chandigarh to Delhi.
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An official statement from the railway noted, “Several changes have been made in the new Vande Bharat trains to make travel safer and reclining seats have been installed on the train to make it more comfortable. It is also equipped with automatic fire sensors. In addition, CCTV cameras have also been installed and on-demand content with Wi-Fi facility is also available.”
Till now, the most popular options for the travellers moving between Chandigarh to Delhi has been Shatabdi express that takes around 3.5 hours with a speed of 75.08 kmh. The Vande Bharat express that will take a test drive between Una to New Delhi after the PM flags it off, will take only 3 hours to cover the same distance at a speed of 78.6 kmh.
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The Chief Minister of the Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar while thanking the Prime Minister for the service said that it will help several passengers of Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Khattar is about to join the first journey from Chandigarh to Ambala.
Prime Minister who starts his second visit to the poll-bound state in last two weeks earlier tweeted, “You would be glad to know that the Vande Bharat Express would be flagged off. IIIT, Una will also be dedicated to the nation. The foundation stone of a Bulk Drug Park will be laid. These works will give wings to people's aspirations.” This is going to be country’s fourth Vande Bharat express train.
Reactions of Congress
As the poll bungles have already been blown, Congress is no less enthusiast to through their hats into the ring, Criticising the BJP government of the state for its failure to restore the rain services on the Kangra Valley Heritage Line, the party said that the ruling party is just giving eyewash to the people by inaugurating big projects instead of solving the old issues.
Issuing a statement, the state Congress leader R S Bali noted that the BJP has left the people of Kagra unattended with the train services on the Pathankot-Jogindernagar Kangra Valley Heritage Line been suspended since July.
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“Since the PM will be inaugurating Vande Bharat Express (train in Una on Thursday), I would like to remind the BJP government that the Chakki railway bridge is indefinitely closed.... It's been months and there are no signs of reconstruction of this economically important bridge for Kangra,” Bali added.
The railway officials however said that the train services had to stall from July 14 due to extreme bad weather- heavy rains causing landslides, falling of boulders and the flash floods.
Notably, this railway service is important for the people of Kangra who use this line for commuting to different locations.
The Gandhinagar-Mumbai Vainde Bharat fiasco
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A few days back another newly-launched Vande Bharat express in the Mumbai Central-Gandhinagar route came to the news for its consecutive collisions with a herd of buffalo and cows.
Notably, the Prime Minister also flagged off the project amidst much fanfare in the poll-bound state of Gujarat. The consecutive accidents though gave Vande Bharat an easy nose-repair the railway took the matter seriously and filed an FIR against the unknown buffalo owners who failed to restrain his cattle from entering the prohibited railway zones.
The Gandhinagar-bound Vande Bharat Express, known as Vande Bharat 2.0 was the third in the queue following installation of its early versions in the routes from New Delhi-Varanasi and Delhi-Katra in 2019.
