Vande Bharat Express: PM Modi to flag off 9 Vande Bharat trains on September 24

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off nine Vande Bharat Express trains via video conferencing at 12:30 pm on Sunday, September 24. These nine trains are set to improve the connections across 11 states in the county: Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Gujarat. The addition of the nine trains will take the total number of Vande Bharat routes to 32, according to an official statement.

Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will attend the inaugural ceremony.

Here is the list of all new Vande Bharat Express trains, scheduled to be flagged off on Sunday, September 24:

• Udaipur-Jaipur Vande Bharat Express
• Tirunelveli-Madurai-Chennai Vande Bharat Express
• Hyderabad-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express
• Vijayawada-Chennai (via Renigunta) Vande Bharat Express
• Patna-Howrah Vande Bharat Express
• Kasaragod-Thiruvananthapuram Vande Bharat Express
• Rourkela-Bhubaneswar-Puri Vande Bharat Express
• Ranchi-Howrah Vande Bharat Express
• Jamnagar-Ahmedabad Vande Bharat Express

The new Vande Bharat Express trains on the Rourkela-Bhubaneswar-Puri and Kasaragod-Thiruvananthapuram routes will be faster than the existing trains by about three hours. The Vande Bharat Express trains on the Hyderabad-Bengaluru and Tirunelveli-Madurai-Chennai routes will be faster by two-and-a-half hours and more than two hours, respectively, whereas those rolling on the Ranchi-Howrah, Patna-Howrah and Jamnagar-Ahmedabad routes will be quicker by about an hour. The Vande Bharat Express train hailing on the Udaipur-Jaipur route will save an additional half an hour than the existing services.

ALSO READ: PM Modi to inaugurate 9 Vande Bharat trains soon

PM's vision to improve connectivity of important religious places

These new Vande Bharat trains are a step towards PM Modi's vision of improving connectivity of important religious places across the country. For example, the Rourkela-Bhubaneswar-Puri and Tirunelveli-Madurai-Chennai Vande Bharat Express trains will connect the major religious towns of Puri and Madurai. Besides, the Vijayawada-Chennai Vande Bharat Express train will use the Renigunta route to link to the Tirupati Pilgrimage Centre.

Amenities in Vande Bharat Express trains

These eight-coach trains have world-class facilities and safety features such as Kavach technology.

What are Vande Bharat Express trains?

The Vande Bharat Express is a semi-high-speed rail service operated by Indian Railways on select routes in the country.

The government introduced the Vande Bharat Express trains in 2019 as part of its 'Make in India' drive. On February 15, 2019, PM Modi launched the first train, between Delhi and Varanasi.

The country's first indigenous, semi-high-speed trains are manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. 

ALSO READ: PM Modi to flag off 3rd Vande Bharat train in Rajasthan on September 24