Vande Bharat Express to connect Jaipur with Udaipur, Sriganganagar, Jodhpur, and Jaisalmer

Jaipur: India’s first semi high-speed train – Vande Bharat Express – will soon become functional in Rajasthan, according to Railways Minister Piyush Goyal. The train will connect Jaipur to Udaipur, Sriganganagar, Jodhpur, and Jaisalmer. The train will cover a distance of around 700-800 km in less than eight hours. The other trains take more than 13 hours to cover the same distance.

India’s first semi-high-speed train, the Vande Bharat Express has the maximum speed of 180 kmph and was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 15.

Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said in an interview on February 15 during the first ride of the train that the ministry is planning to make 130 more trains like Vande Bharat Express under the Make In India project. The process to introduce 30 such trains is going on.

In the near future, similar trains will be operated in Rajasthan and will connect Jaipur to other major cities having a stretch of more than 500 km including Udaipur, Sriganganagar, Jodhpur, and Jaisalmer.

After the success of the Vande Bharat Express in Rajasthan, the ministry will launch the train for longer routes connecting Rajasthan to other states, added Goyal.

The Vande Bharat express also called Train 18 departs from Delhi junction at 6 am and reaches Varanasi by 2 pm and on the return journey it departs from Varanasi at 3 pm and arrives in Delhi by 11 pm. The train operates only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

• Vande Bharat Express is the first semi high-speed train of India, which is completely made in the country under ‘Make in India’ project.
• Its exterior structure looks like the Bullet train of foreign countries and interiors like the airplane.
• It has 16 air-conditioned coaches of which two are executive class such as Business class and Economy class. The total seating capacity is 1,128 passengers.
• All coaches are equipped with automatic doors, GPS-based audio-visual passenger information system, onboard hotspot WiFi for entertainment purposes, emergency gates, Charging points, and very comfortable seating. All toilets are a bio-vacuum type. The lighting is dual mode, that is diffused for general illumination and personal for every seat.
• From Delhi to Varanasi, an air-conditioned chair car ticket cost Rs 1,760 and the executive class fare is Rs 3,310 inclusive of catering charges.