Jamshedpur/Bhubaneswar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to flag off two new Vande Bharat Express, including one to Odisha, from Tatanagar on September 15.
According to sources, the Vande Bharat trains will ply on Tatanagar-Berhampur and Tatanagar-Patna routes. “The 63rd and 64th rake of Vande Bharat Express version 2 have arrived in Tata on September 6 and will be commissioned on September 7. Prior to the inaugural, a trial run of the train from Tatanagar to Berhampur may be arranged on September 8 to check proper functioning of all the systems on run,” a South Eastern Railway (SER) release said.
It also mentioned about trial run between Patna and Tata on September 10.
The Tatanagar-Berhampur Vande Bharat train will traverse a distance of 586 km in just 7 to 8 hours and have halts at Chaibasa, Dangoaposi, Banspani, Nayagarh, Keonjhargarh, Harichandanpur, Jakhapura, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Khurda Road and Balugaon. It is expected to run six days a week. The timetable of the train will soon be released by the Railway Board, the sources added.
On Wednesday, SER General Manager Anil Kumar Mishra inspected the preparations at Tatanagar railway station ahead of the proposed flagging off of the Vande Bharat trains. The GM said the PM is expected to visit the city on September 15 to flag off the inter-city semi high-speed trains. “We got telephonic information from the Railway Ministry about the PM’s proposed visit but the SER zonal office is yet to receive official communication. The inspection is being done to assess the level of readiness so that we can proceed with the preparations at short notice,” he added.
In March, the PM had flagged off Odisha’s third Vande Bharat Express train, connecting Visakhapatnam with Bhubaneswar. The state’s second semi-high-speed train service was inaugurated on Puri–Rourkela route in September 2023 and the first between Puri and Howrah in May that year.
