Bhubaneswar: A full-fledged trial run of the much-awaited Vande Bharat Express train between Odisha’s Puri and Howrah is slated to be held on Friday, ahead of its likely launch next month.
According to sources, the superfast high-end express train is likely to start regular service between Puri and Howrah via Odisha capital Bhubaneswar in May. Before that, the trial run will be carried out by the railways from Howrah to Puri and back tomorrow, sources said.
For the trial run, the high-speed train will be flagged off from Howrah at 6.10 am tomorrow, sources said. Thereafter, the train will stop at Kharagpur, Bhadrak, Jajpur and Cuttack for two minutes each.
The state-of-the-art train will also stop for two minutes each at Bhubaneswar and Khurda before reaching Puri at 12.35 pm. The train is slated to start its return journey from the seaside pilgrim town at 1.50 pm and reach Howrah at 8.30 pm.
Preliminary work for launch of the much-awaited train service is currently in progress. Coaches manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai have been sent to Kolkata for primary maintenance. These coaches will subsequently come to Odisha for secondary maintenance before being ready for inauguration.
According to reports, it will be the ninth Vande Bharat train which is likely to be flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May.
The Vande Bharat Express can reach a maximum speed of 180 kmph.
The launch date is expected to be announced soon. The seaside pilgrim town of Puri is famous for Shree Jagannath Temple, which attracts a huge number of visitors from across the country.
With introduction of the train on Puri-Howrah route, West Bengal will have two Vande Bharat Express trains. The other one is the Howrah-New Jalpaiguri service that was launched on December 30, last year.
The Vande Bharat Express train has 14 AC chair car coaches and two executive AC chair car coaches with a capacity of 1,128 passengers. The government plans to run 400 Vande Bharat trains across the country in the next three years.
Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, during his Odisha visit last year, had stated that the state is going to get a Vande Bharat Express soon.
