PM Modi to virtually flag off Jalna-Mumbai Vande Bharat service from Ayodhya today

Mumbai/Jalna: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the inaugural run of the Jalna-Mumbai Vande Bharat Express through video link on Saturday, the Central Railway has said.

The CR said in a release on Friday that the PM will virtually flag off the 8-coach service while addressing a function at the redeveloped Ayodhya Dham railway station in Uttar Pradesh. He will also flag off two Amrit Bharat and five other Vande Bharat services between different cities.

In its inaugural run, the 02705 Jalna-Mumbai Vande Bharat train will tentatively depart from the city in the Marathwada region at 11am and will arrive in the metropolis at 6:45pm.

As per the release, the train will halt at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, formerly Aurangabad, at 11:55 am, Manmad Junction at 1:44 pm, Nasik Road at 2:44 pm, Kalyan Junction at 5.06 pm, Thane at 5.28 pm and Dadar at 5.50 pm before proceeding to CSMT in Mumbai.

In its regular run from January 1, the train will leave CSMT at 1:10pm and reach Jalna at 8:30pm, while from January 2, it will depart from Jalna at 5:05am and reach CSMT at 11:55am.

Central Railway, however, has not given details of the fare structure of the new service, which will run on all days except Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Neeti Sarkar of Nanded division, of which Jalna is a part, said the service will connect important cities like Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jalna, Nashik to areas like Thane and Mumbai.

“It will boost visits to sites like the Rajur Ganapati Temple in Jalna, Grishneshwar Jyotirlinga along with Ajanta and Ellora Caves in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Shirdi near Manmad. The train, with 530 seats, will take 6 hours 50 minutes to cover the distance, which will be of great convenience to people,” Sarkar said.

While Jalna has a thriving steel sector, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar has MSME hubs as well as the upcoming AURIC industrial city.

Sarkar said the train has a “black box” like those in aircraft which will record the activity in the driver's cab. It will be vital for probes into any untoward incident, including accidents, she added.

The train will have one Executive Chair Car and seven Chair Cars.

It is Maharashtra's 7th Vande Bharat service, six of which are operated on the CR network. It will be the 5th Vande Bharat service to run from Mumbai, as per the CR release.