Times News Network
Varanasi: After a 45-day shutdown for maintenance, the Varanasi-New Delhi Vande Bharat Express, India’s first semi-high-speed train, resumed its operation on Friday.
During the maintenance, the train was operated with the rake of Tejas Express. The train, also known as T-18, was flagged off by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi from New Delhi on February 15, 2019.
The spokesperson of the Varanasi division of North Eastern Railway (NER), Ashok Kumar told TOI that the Vande Bharat Express, which arrived from New Delhi on Friday, left with passengers back to New Delhi. The train went off the tracks from February 15, as the rake of the train had gone for its maintenance of necessary safety over hauling work. Hence, the train was operated with the rake of Tejas Express train during this period, he said
The Vande Bharat Express train, which has travel classes like Shatabdi Train but with better facilities, can run up to a maximum speed of 180 km per hour. But its actual top speed is 130 km/h due to speed limit of railway track of the route. This semi-high speed train service covers the distance between the national capital and Varanasi in just eight hours.
It has 16 AC coaches of which two coaches are of executive class. The train has a seating capacity of 1,128 passengers in total. It was designed and built by Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai under the government’s Make in India initiative over a span of 18 months.