The Chandigarh Madurai train will run twice a week from Chandigarh from today. It will chug off at 7.45am. Currently, the train runs every Monday at 7.45am. But from now, it will also run every Friday at the same time from local railway station.
Having over 1,300km journey, the train takes nearly 24 hours to reach Madurai and has 11 halts, including Yamunanagar, Saharanpur, Delhi, Agra, Nagpur, Chennai, Ambur, Salem, Erode and then Madurai. The increase in frequency of the train to twice a week was announced in last year’s budget.
With this run, all new trains announced for Chandigarh in the last year’s railway budget have started operating, except the much-awaited Katra-Kalka train which, according to officials, is expected to start soon. More than 20,000 Tamilians have made tricity their home in past several years and the increase in frequency will strengthen the connectivity between the cities.
General secretary of the Chandigarh Tamilian Association SP Rajasekaran said, “It is rather more beneficial for the Tamilians in the tricity if this train runs on Chennai-Villupuram-Trichy-Madurai route rather than its existing Chennai- Ambur- Salem-ErodeMadurai route,” he added.