Hyderabad gets its fifth Vande Bharat train

Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday flagged off the Vande Bharat train between Nagpur and Secunderabad, at an event in Bhuj, Gujarat. This was among a number of such trains the Prime Minister flagged off.

“India has no time to lose now; we have to increase India’s credibility and also provide every Indian a life of dignity,” he said.

This is the fifth Vande Bharat train to the city, apart from two services to Visakhapatnam, one to Bengaluru and another to Tirupati.

The Nagpur-Hyderabad Vande Bharat is expected to have 20 bogies in its regular run, against the usual complement of eight. The train will operate every day except Tuesday.

Current services such as the Rajdhani Express and Telangana Express take about eight hours to reach Nagpur; the new Vande Bharat Express will cut the time of the 578-km journey to about 7 hours and 15 minutes. The train will offer chair car and executive class travel.

The train will begin its journey from Nagpur at 5 am and will arrive in Secunderabad at 12.15 pm, according to the tentative schedule. The stops include Sevagram, Chandrapur, Ballarshah, Ramagundam, and Kazipet stations. For the return journey, the train will depart Secunderabad at 1 pm and is expected to reach Nagpur at 8.20 pm. The schedule remained to be finalised.

The inaugural Vande Bharat was expected to reach Secunderabad near about midnight and would be ceremonially received by officials at the Secunderabad station.

Among the southern states, Tamil Nadu is connected by seven Vande Bharat trains, followed by Karnataka with six.