PM Modi flags off 10 new Vande Bharat Express trains: All you need to know

India celebrates the roll-out of 10 fresh Vande Bharat trains. On March 12, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the new trains virtually from Ahmedabad. Let’s take a look.

51 Vande Bharat trains

After the inauguration on March 12, the tally of Vande Bharat trains hits a solid 51, covering a whopping 45 routes. Kasaragod–Thiruvananthapuram, Delhi to Katra, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Delhi to Varanasi, Mysuru-Chennai and now Visakhapatnam–Secunderabad will be the routes boasting two Vande Bharat trains.

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Jharkhand will get its third Vande Bharat train. The first, which operates between Ranchi and Patna, was flagged off on June 27, 2023. The second, between Ranchi and Howrah, was launched on September 24, 2023. Now, Jharkhand will get one in the Ranchi-Varanasi route that will become operational on March 18.

Star cities

Delhi emerges as the star player with 10 Vande Bharat trains. Delhi is now connected with Amb Andaura, Amritsar, Ayodhya, Bhopal, Dehradun and Khajuraho. Mumbai is not far behind with six and Chennai hosts five. Mysuru gears up to welcome its second Vande Bharat train.

New routes

New tracks for the Vande Bharat Express include routes from Dehradun to Lucknow, Patna to Lucknow and New Jalpaiguri to Patna. There's more; trains will connect Bhubaneswar with Visakhapatnam, Kalaburagi (formerly Gulbarga) with Bengaluru, Ranchi with Varanasi and Khajuraho with Delhi.

Also, Ahmedabad and Mumbai will get the second set of Vande Bharat trains, as do Secunderabad and Visakhapatnam, as well as Bengaluru and Chennai.

Divisional Railway Manager (Waltair Division) Saurabh Prasad confirmed that, of the two Vande Bharat trains, one will run between Visakhapatnam and Bhubaneswar and the other will operate between Visakhapatnam and Secunderabad.

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"These two new Vande Bharat Express trains are in addition to the existing service on this route," Prasad told ANI.

Routes with extensions

Not just new trains, but some old routes get extended too. Thiruvananthapuram-Kasargod will push on to Mangaluru, Ahmedabad-Jamnagar will reach Dwarka, Gorakhpur-Lucknow will extend to Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad), and the Ajmer-Delhi route will stretch to Chandigarh.