3 additional Vande Bharat trains for West Bengal

Bengal is set to receive three more Vande Bharat trains, connecting Howrah with Puri, Ranchi and Patna, with discussions underway for a fourth train to connect Howrah with Varanasi. The announcement was made by Arun Arora, the Eastern Railway general manager, during a press conference on Monday, where he also praised the Eastern Railway’s “superlative performance in the last fiscal year”.

The Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat train, which was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 30th, 2021, has been well-received by the public, with its semi-high speed of 100-130kmph enabling it to cover the distance between Howrah and NJP stations in just six-and-a-half hours. Arora highlighted that additional semi-high speed trains are on the way to Bengal as part of the railway ministry’s “Mission Raftaar”.

According to officials, work is currently underway to optimize the Vande Bharat train’s speed to 160kmph, but they emphasized that cooperation from the state government is necessary to fence both sides of the track to ensure safety. Encroachment along the tracks must also be removed before the train can run at its maximum speed.

The expansion of the Vande Bharat network is part of the railway ministry’s efforts to improve the speed and efficiency of rail travel across India.