Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday inaugurated the Ajmer-Delhi Vande Bharat, which is first for Rajasthan. This new Vande Bharat will reduce the travel time between the national capital and Rajasthan’s capital, Jaipur, by around 70 minutes.
At the launch, PM Modi said that it was only after 2014 that the revolutionary transformation started taking place as “political interests had dominated the modernization of Railways post Independence”.
“The decision to appoint a railway minister was also politically motivated. It was due to this political interest that trains that were announced never chugged off. The selfish and mean politics had always overshadowed the modernisation of the Railways. The large-scale corruption did neither let the development happen in Railways nor did it let even the Railways’ selection process to be transparent,” the prime minister said, adding that lands were taken in exchange for jobs.
PM Narendra Modi also had his share of laughter while thanking Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot. “I especially want to express my gratitude to Gehlot ji. He has been going through a lot of trouble due to political turbulence in his state. Despite that, he took out time for development work and came for the launch. I welcome and appreciate this effort,” he said.
“Gehlot ji, aapke toh do-do haath mein laddoo hain (Gehlot, you’ve got sweets in both your hands). Your Railway Minister is from Rajasthan. And Railway Board’s chairman is also from Rajasthan. Hence, you have double advantage. And secondly, the work that should have been done immediately after Independence, couldn’t be done till now. But you trust me to such an extent that you brought even those tasks to me. Your trust in me is the strength of our friendship. And as a friend, I thank you for having this trust to me,” PM Modi added.
The train, connecting Delhi Cantt and Ajmer, is the world’s first semi high speed passenger train on high rise overhead electric (OHE) territory, the ministry said. News18 was onboard this train as it was flagged off.
Speaking to News18, a ministry official said that while the commercial run of this Vande Bharat will be between Delhi and Ajmer, the inaugural train will run between Jaipur and Delhi. This is a 16-coach train having seating capacity of over 1,128.
This new Vande Bharat will start its commercial journey from Thursday and will run all days of the week except Wednesday.
It will complete the journey between Ajmer and Delhi in 5.15 hours and will have stops at Jaipur, Alwar and Gurgaon. For Jaipur, the travel time of this train will be 3.25 hours.
The Vande Bharat will start its journey from Ajmer at 6.20 am and will reach Delhi by 11.30 am. From Delhi, it will start the journey at 6.40 pm and complete the journey to Ajmer at 11.55 pm.
A number of trains are running between Delhi and Jaipur and so far the fastest of these was Rajdhani that takes four hours and third AC costs Rs 1,120.
Next was the double decker that takes 4.25 hours and charges Rs 500 for chair car and Rs 1,205 for the executive class. Shatabdi is next in line. It completes the journey in 4.35 hours and costs Rs 885 for chair car and Rs 1,380 for the executive class.
These Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains also run till Ajmer. Rajdhani takes around 5.50 hours while for Shatabdi the travel time was 6.45 hours between Delhi and Ajmer. Shatabdi costs Rs 1,100 for chair car and Rs 1,715 for executive class.
“Ajmer-Delhi Cantt. Vande Bharat Express will improve connectivity of major tourist destinations in Rajasthan including Pushkar and Ajmer Sharif Dargah,” the ministry said, adding that enhanced connectivity will also provide a boost to socio-economic development in the region.
This is the fourth Vande Bharat that is inaugurated this month. With this, the total tally of Vande Bharat has reached 14.
Also, this will be the fifth Vande Bharat for Delhi. At present, four more Vande Bharat trains are running from Delhi to Varanasi, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra, Bhopal and Amb Andaura. Three are running from Mumbai to Gandhinagar, Shirdi and Solapur.
Vande Bharat trains are also operational between Chennai-Mysore, Bilaspur-Nagpur, Howrah-New Jalpaiguri, Chennai-Coimbatore, Secunderabad-Tirupati and Secunderabad-Vishakhapatnam.
The PM had promised that in the 75 weeks of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, 75 Vande Bharat trains would connect every corner of the country. The first Vande Bharat train was inaugurated in 2019.
Read all the Latest India News here
Comments
0 comment