Nagpur: The Railway Board on Tuesday replaced the prestigious 14-coach Vande Bharat Express between Nagpur and Bilaspur with eight coaches. The train will now run as usual from Wednesday.
On May 14, Vande Bharat Express between Nagpur-Bilaspur was temporarily replaced by Tejas Express rake. However, within a day it again replaced the Tejas rake with Vande Bharat. The new rake reached Bilaspur via Ballarshah on Tuesday.
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According to a railway official, the new Vande Bharat rake will have eight coaches and will accommodate 450 passengers, which was actually the capacity when the 14-coach train operated. Depending on the increase in the number of passengers, coaches will be increased again, said the official.
The Vande Bharat rake was interchanged temporarily for technical reasons. However, to avoid any discomfort to patrons of Nagpur, additional deployment of staff, frequent announcements, information through mass messages, easy refunds, etc were arranged promptly.
Rail Yatri Sangh’s Brij Bhushan Shukla said the direction of the train needs to be reversed. This train needs to operate from Nagpur in the morning and Bilaspur in the afternoon.
“The Vande Bharat service also needs to be faster. Trains operate at 130 kmph between Nagpur and Bilaspur and 5 hours is doable. Some stops like Bhandara Road and Bhatapara also need to be added,” said Bharatiya Yatri Kendra’s Basant Shukla.
