PM to flag off fourth Vande Bharat Express in Himachal Pradesh today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the fourth Vande Bharat Express train in Himachal Pradesh on Thursday, railways officials said

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the fourth Vande Bharat Express train in Himachal Pradesh on Thursday, railways officials said.

Train number 22447 will depart at its scheduled time of 5.50 am from New Delhi railway station and reach Amb Andaura station at 11.05 am. (HT File Photo)

The semi-high-speed train will be operating between Delhi and Himachal Pradesh, they added.

“The semi-high-speed train will run between Delhi and Amb Andaura (in Himachal). It will run on all days except Wednesdays,” a senior railways official told HT on Wednesday, adding that the Prime Minister will flag off the train at around 9.15 am on Thursday.

Train number 22447 will depart at its scheduled time of 5.50 am from New Delhi railway station and reach Amb Andaura station at 11.05 am.

A second train, number 22448, will depart from Amb Andaura at 1 pm and reach New Delhi at 6.25 pm, a railway official said, adding that there could be slight changes in the train timings.

Officials also said that the train will have 16 coaches and will have halts in Ambala (Haryana), Chandigarh, Anandpur Sahib (Punjab) and Una (Himachal). “This fourth VB train will be covering four states and a Union territory not only making it preferable for travellers but also attracting pilgrims from Sikh and Hindu communities,” another railways official said.

Anandpur Sahib is one of the most sacred places in Sikhism, as it was the place where the last two Sikh Gurus, Guru Tegh Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh, lived. Chintpurni Temple in Una and Jwala temple in Kangra district of Himachal are the other popular pilgrimages nearby.

He also said that the train is expected to commence operations in the next ten days.

“...it will be the fourth Vande Bharat train to be introduced in the country and is an advanced version compared to the earlier ones, being much lighter and capable of reaching higher speed in shorter duration. It accelerates to 100 Km/h in just 52 seconds. The introduction of the train will help boost tourism in the region and provide a comfortable and faster mode of travel,” a statement from the railway ministry read.

“Travelling with an average speed of around 78 kmph/ 76 kmph, the fourth Vande Bharat train will provide the fastest service between Delhi and Amb Andaura,” a third railways official said.

“The end-to-end running time is 5 hours 15 minutes and 5 hours 25 minutes as against the travel time of seven hours and seven and a half hours by existing superfast service; thereby saving around two hours each way,” he added.

Recently, the indigenously designed semi-high-speed train, the third service under the Vande Bharat series, was flagged off by Modi on September 30 from Gandhinagar Capital, and started the commercial run on October 1.

Vande Bharat Express trains also operate on Delhi-Varanasi, Delhi-Katra and Mumbai-Gujarat routes.