Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday flagged off the sixth Vande Bharat Express of the country from the Nagpur railway station. This state-of-the-art train– having additional features than its previous versions–will run between Nagpur and Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh. Flanked by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, his deputy Devendra Fadnavis and Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, the PM also inspected the train coaches and took stock of the on board facilities.
“Modi inspected the control centre of the locomotive engine of Vande Bharat Express. He also took stock of the development plans of the Nagpur and Ajni railway stations. The travel time from Nagpur to Bilaspur will be reduced to five-and-a-half-hours from 7-8 hours,” said the officials
Some of the advanced features in Vande Bharat 2.0 are reaching a speed of 0-100 km per hour in just 52 seconds besides the maximum speed of up to 180 km per hour. It weighs 392 tonne when compared to the previous version of 430 tonne. Vande Bharat Express will also be eco-friendly as the ACs will be 15% more energy efficient. With dust-free clean air cooling of the traction motor, travel will become more comfortable. A side recliner seat facility provided only to Executive Class passengers earlier will now be made available for all classes. Executive Coaches have the added feature of 180-degree rotating seats.
During the event, the PM also laid the foundation stone for multi-crore redevelopment of the Nagpur and Ajni railway stations. He also dedicated to the nation two locomotive maintenance depots at Ajni and Kohli-Narkher section. These projects have been developed at costs of about Rs110 crore and about Rs450 crore, respectively.
