On Tuesday, March 12, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated 10 additional Vande Bharat trains, bringing the total number to over 50 and extending coverage to 45 routes across the nation. Currently, the Indian Railways manages 41 Vande Bharat Express services, linking states through Broad Gauge (BG) electrified networks, and traversing 24 states and 256 districts.
Two Vande Bharat trains will now operate on six routes, namely Delhi-Katra, Delhi-Varanasi, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Mysuru-Chennai, Kasaragod–Thiruvananthapuram, and the newly added Visakhapatnam–Secunderabad route.
Vande Bharat trains primarily operate on electrified broad gauge networks, covering multiple states.
In December 2023, the Prime Minister inaugurated six new Vande Bharat trains. These included the second train linking Katra to New Delhi, as well as routes from Amritsar to Delhi, Coimbatore to Bangalore, Mangalore to Madgaon, Jalna to Mumbai, and Ayodhya to Delhi. Additionally, the second train between Delhi and Varanasi was also inaugurated during the same month.
New Routes of Vande Bharat Trains:
- Ahmedabad-Mumbai Central
- Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam
- Mysuru-Dr. MGR Central (Chennai)
- Patna-Lucknow
- New Jalpaiguri-Patna
- Puri-Visakhapatnam
- Lucknow-Dehradun
- Kalaburagi – Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal Bengaluru
- Ranchi-Varanasi
- Khajuraho-Delhi (Nizamuddin)
Extensions to be flagged off today:
- Ahmedabad-Jamnagar Vande Bharat is being extended till Dwarka
- Ajmer-Delhi Sarai Rohilla Vande Bharat is being extended till Chandigarh
- Gorakhpur-Lucknow Vande Bharat is being extended till Prayagraj
- Thiruvananthapuram-Kasargod Vande Bharat is being extended till Mangaluru
City with the most Vande Bharat trains:
Delhi will have the highest number of Vande Bharat trains among cities, with 10 trains terminating in the capital. These trains connect Delhi to various destinations such as Dehradun, Amb Andaura, Bhopal, Ayodhya, Amritsar, and now Khajuraho.
Following Delhi, Mumbai has the second-highest number of dedicated Vande Bharat trains, with a total of six, including new services to Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar.
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Chennai, on the other hand, boasts five trains, and the launch of the second Vande Bharat train for Mysuru is scheduled for Tuesday.