Nine new Vande Bharat trains connecting eleven states flagged off

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday flagged off nine Vande Bharat trains via video conferencing from Delhi. 

This is the first time that Indian Railways has launched nine Vande Bharat trains in one go. 

"Speed, the scale of infrastructure development is matching aspirations of 140 crore Indians...Today people of Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha, Jharkhand and Gujarat will get the facility of Vande Bharat Express trains. These new Vande Bharat Express trains depict the new energy of the country," the PM said before flagging off the trains. 

At present, as many as 25 Vande Bharat trains are operational in Indian Railways network. With the launch of nine more trains today, the number of Vande Bharat trains across the country has reached 34. 

The first Vande Bharat Express train was flagged off on February 15, 2019, on the New Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi route by PM Modi from New Delhi Railway Station.

"Since the launching of the semi high speed trains, total 1.11 crore passengers travelled on it," the PM said, after flagging off the trains. 

Following are the routes the nine Vande Bharat will ply on: Hyderabad (Kachiguda)-Bengaluru (Yeswanthpur); Chennai-Tirunelveli, Vijayawada-Chennai; Patna-Howrah; Rourkela-Puri; Kasaragod-Alappuzha-Thiruvananthapuram; Jaipur-Udaipur; Ranchi-Tatanagar-Kolkata; Jamnagar-Rajkot-Ahmedabad.

New Vande Bharat trains have been launched after nearly two months since flagging off the Gorakhpur-Lucknow Vande Bharat Express and Jodhpur-Sabarmati Vande Bharat Express on 7 July.

"These nine trains will boost connectivity across eleven states namely Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha, Jharkhand and Gujarat," said the Ministry of Railways in a statement. 

"These Vande Bharat trains are  fastest train along the routes of their operation and will help save considerable time of the passengers. As compared to the current fastest train along the route, Rourkela- Bhubaneswar – Puri  Vande Bharat Express and Kasaragod - Thiruvananthapuram Vande Bharat Express will be faster by about 3 hours; Hyderabad – Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express by more than 2.5 hours; Tirunelveli-Madurai- Chennai Vande Bharat Express by more than 2 hours; Ranchi – Howrah  Vande Bharat Express,  Patna – Howrah Vande Bharat Express and Jamnagar-Ahmedabad Vande Bharat Express by about 1 hour; and Udaipur - Jaipur Vande Bharat Express by about half an hour," said the statement. 

"In line with the Prime Minister’s vision to improve connectivity of important religious places across the country, Rourkela- Bhubaneswar – Puri  Vande Bharat Express and Tirunelveli-Madurai- Chennai Vande Bharat Express will connect important religious towns of Puri and Madurai. Also, the Vijayawada – Chennai Vande Bharat Express will operate via the Renigunta route and will provide connectivity to Tirupati Pilgrimage centre," the statement said. 

The introduction of these Vande Bharat trains will herald a new standard of rail service in the country. These trains, equipped with world class amenities and advanced safety features, including Kavach technology, will be a key step towards providing modern, speedy and comfortable means of travel to common people, professionals, businessmen, student community and tourists, said the statement.