New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to expand India’s Vande Bharat train network by inaugurating 10 new trains across the country, pushing the total number of operational trains to over 50. Scheduled for Tuesday, this announcement comes just over two months since the last batch of trains was introduced.
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What are the new train routes?
The new trains include the Lucknow-Dehradun Vande Bharat, as well as routes like Patna-Lucknow, New Jalpaiguri-Patna, Puri-Visakhapatnam, Kalaburagi–Bengaluru, Ranchi-Varanasi, and Khajuraho-Delhi. Additionally, the Railway Ministry will extend the routes of four existing Vande Bharat trains — Ahmedabad-Jamnagar to Dwarka; Ajmer-Delhi to Chandigarh; Gorakhpur-Lucknow to Prayagraj; and Thiruvananthapuram-Kasargod to Mangaluru. Vande Bharat trains operate on routes with a Broad Gauge electrified network.
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In December 2023, six new Vande Bharat trains were inaugurated, including the second train between Katra and New Delhi, and others like Amritsar-Delhi; Coimbatore-Bangalore; Mangalore-Madgaon; Jalna-Mumbai; and Ayodhya-Delhi. The second train between Delhi and Varanasi was also flagged off during the same period.
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Following the inauguration, the total count of Vande Bharat trains across India will reach 51, operating on 45 distinct routes. Notably, some routes have multiple trains servicing them, such as Delhi-Katra and Delhi-Varanasi, each with two trains, meanwhile Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Mysuru-Chennai, and Kasaragod–Thiruvananthapuram also have two trains running between them. Visakhapatnam–Secunderabad will join the list of routes with two Vande Bharat trains after the new additions.
Delhi will emerge as the city with the most Vande Bharat trains, with 10 terminating there. Mumbai will have six dedicated trains, and Chennai will have five.
