Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod Vande Bharat train on Tuesday – the first such train rolled out for Kerala. It is expected to give a major boost to the connectivity between north and south Kerala. With this, the total number of Vande Bharat trains running in the country has reached 15.
The new Vande Bharat will run all days of the week except Thursdays and will complete the journey in 8 hours and five minutes on either sides.
From Thiruvananthapuram, the train ticket will cost Rs 2,880 for the executive class, while Rs 1,590 will be charged for the chair. The train will depart at 5.20 am and will reach Kasargode at 1.35 pm.
From Kasaragod, the Vande Bharat train will depart at 2.30 pm and reach Trivandrum Central at 10.35 pm. The complete journey will cost Rs 2,815 for the executive class and Rs 1,520 for the chair car.
This 16-coach train has two executive classes and 14 chair cars. The seating capacity in executive class is 52 while for chair car it is 78.
The train will have stops at Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam Town, Thrissur, Shoranur, Kozhikode, and Kannur. In Ernakulam, the stoppage will be for three minutes while at all the other stations it will be for two minutes.
This premium service will be the fastest train in the corridor. The train covers the distance of 586 km in around eight hours.
So far, Thiruvananthapuram-Hazrat Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express was the fastest train on this route.
It used to take nine hours for the journey from Trivandrum and 10.45 hours from Kasargode.
This train will benefit the people of 11 districts in the state — Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Pathanamthitta, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur, and Kasaragod.
“Vande Bharat Express has made its mark as the symbol of progressive and self-reliant India. A massive welcome that Vande Bharat services receive from cross-section of society is a testament to the success of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative envisioned by the PM," the railway ministry said in a statement.
This will be the third Vande Bharat for the Southern Railway and second that was inaugurated this month.
The first two Vande Bharat express trains for the Southern Railway were from Chennai. Earlier this month, the PM had inaugurated the Chennai-Coimbatore Vande Bharat train.
The Vande Bharat inaugurated for Kerala is the fifth train that was inaugurated this month after the ministry geared up the production and delivery of Vande Bharat trains in the new financial year.
On April 1, a Vande Bharat train between Rani Kamalapati and Delhi was inaugurated. On April 8, two sets of trains – Secunderabad-Tirupati and Chennai-Coimbatore were launched. On April 12, the Ajmer-Delhi Cantonment Vande Bharat was flagged off.
These trains are focusing on pilgrimage as well, be it the Vande Bharat for Tirupati or those running for Katra, Varanasi and Shirdi. The Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod train will also boost tourism in the state.
With the new Vande Bharat, pilgrimage tourism will get a big fillip, especially in Thiruvananthapuram (Anantha Padmanabha Swamy temple), Thrissur (Thrissur Pooram and Guruvayur temple), and Chottanikkara Bhagavathy temple. “The scenic Kovalam beach, Neyyar Dam, Poovar island in Trivandrum, the pristine backwaters of Ernakulam, Asthamudi lake and famed lighthouse in Kollam, the historic Bekal Fort in Kasaragod and other enduring monuments and picturesque locations will see a spike in tourist footfall," the ministry added.
At present, five Vande Bharat trains are running from Delhi to Ajmer, Varanasi, Vaishno Devi in Katra, Bhopal and Amb Andaura. Three are running from Mumbai to Gandhinagar, Shirdi and Solapur and two from Chennai to Mysore and Coimbatore.
Vande Bharat trains are also operational on Bilaspur-Nagpur, Howrah-New Jalpaiguri, Secunderabad-Tirupati and Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam routes.
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