Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the first run of the Ayodhya-Darbhanga Amrit Bharat Express on Saturday, carrying nearly 1,200 “souvenir pass” holders, including educators and schoolchildren.
The Northern Railway provided the passes at no cost.
The train was one of six Vande Bharat and two Amrit Bharat trains that the prime minister flagged off at 12:15 p.m., the majority of them electronically.
Modi had opened the renovated railway station earlier in the day, which cost Rs 241 crore to complete.
Most of the students on board the Ayodhya-Darbhanga Amrit Bharat Express said that they travelled from Gorakhpur to here to be part of the inaugural run of the train.
“We woke up at 3 am, took a train at 5 am from Gorakhpur to Ayodhya, and now we are travelling back to Gorakhpur,” said an excited student.
Another student said, “It is a new train so everything is neat and clean, and I saw a mobile holder and foot-operated water tap in the toilet”. The student added that the journey was less jerky as compared to the train in which they had come to Ayodhya in the morning.
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Besides schoolchildren, there were railway employees, journalists, and security personnel on board the train.
“Out of 4,000 students, 48 of us were selected based on our academic performance and communication skill for the inaugural trip,” 17-year-old Aditya Kasaudhan, a student of the Maharana Pratap Inter College, Civil Lines Gorakhpur, said.
The second Amrit Bharat Express to be launched will connect Bengaluru’s Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminus with Malda town.
The following Vande Bharat trains were flagged off: the Jalna-Mumbai Vande Bharat Express, the Ayodhya-Anand Vihar Terminal Vande Bharat Express, the Mangalore-Madgaon Vande Bharat Express, the Coimbatore-Bangalore Cantt Vande Bharat Express, the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra-New Delhi Vande Bharat Express, and the Ayodhya-Anand Vihar Terminal Vande Bharat Express.
Amrit Bharat trains can travel at a maximum speed of 130 kmph, according to the Indian Railways.
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“The Amrit Bharat trains eliminate the jerk effect with a unique kind of coupler called a semi-permanent coupler. Additionally, it is safer for the train to operate,” recently stated Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
According to a railway circular, the trains have other significant features such as horizontal sliding windows, dust-sealed wider gangways, an aerosol-based fire suppression system in toilets and electrical cubicles, an emergency disaster management light, floor guide fluorescent strips, bench-type design for LWS coaches, segregation of reserved and unreserved coaches with sliding doors.
As the trains’ fare is 15-17 percent higher than the mail and express trains are currently run, railway officials travelling in the train argued that the kind of facilities it offers, the fare increase is negligent.
The Ayodhya-Darbhanga Amrit Bharat Express will officially start operations from January 1 and run twice a week — Mondays and Thursdays — with a total carrying capacity of 1,834 passengers in two classes — sleeper and second.
The railway minister had earlier said after the flagging off of the train, the railway would conduct a general run of the train for four to five months to see if it causes any technical challenges.
“After that 20 to 30 trains of this model will be made every month. We did the same thing with Vande Bharat trains. We ran the train for one year and then made improvements while enhancing productivity,” Vaishnaw had said.
The trains to be launched subsequently will have general class configuration going up to AC-II.
(Source: PTI)
