India’s first semi-high speed train ‘Vande Bharat Express’ left Delhi for Varanasi on Sunday morning, on its first commercial run.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had flagged off the country’s first semi-high speed train, at New Delhi Railway Station on Friday.
Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said tickets were sold out for the next two weeks already.
‘Vande Bharat Express left Delhi for Varanasi today morning on its first commercial run. Tickets sold out for the next two weeks already. Get yours today !’ he wrote.
While returning to New Delhi on its inaugural run on Saturday, the train was stopped at Chamraula station of National Capital Region, about 18 km after crossing Tundla station, due to some communication issue between the last basic unit of four coaches and the rest of the train, probably due to some external hit.
Thereafter, brakes were applied in the train, which was checked for faults and moved to Delhi, an official Spokesperson of the Railways said.
After reaching the national capital, the train has been examined at New Delhi maintenance depot to rectify the defect in communication that occurred enroute. All other systems of the train have also been thoroughly examined.
A journey in India’s first self-propelled train from the production shops of Integral Coach Factory, from New Delhi to Varanasi in Executive class fare is Rs 3,310 (inclusive of catering charge and GST), while for the same journey in Chair car fare is Rs 1,760 ((inclusive of catering charge and GST).
While if one is travelling from Varanasi to New Delhi Station, the fare is Rs 3,260 for Executive Class and Rs 1,700 for Chair Car.
Similarly, New Delhi to Kanpur Central fare is Rs 2,105 for Executive Class and Rs 1,090 for Chair Car; while New Delhi to Allahabad journey to one person fare is Rs 2,750 for Executive Class and Rs 1395 in Chair Car.
Other charges like reservation fee, superfast surcharge, catering charge and Goods and Services Tax as applicable shall be levied separately, the Railways said.
The train is scheduled to run between New Delhi-Varanasi, with stoppages at Kanpur and Allahabad.
The semi-high speed train, which presently is running at the speed of 130 km/hr, though it has been designed to reach a speed of 180 km/hr, once the tracks are developed to that level.
It will operate on five days a week, except for Monday and Thursday.
The swanky train features an aerodynamic nose design on both the ends with air-conditioned chair-car formation.
Being developed in a record time of about 18 months, as against the industry demand of about three to four years, the train is designed in such a way to save diesel by dispensing with the power cars and about 30 per cent electricity saving because of advanced regenerative braking system.
