Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav on Tuesday announced that the highly awaited Vande Bharat Sleeper project will not be commissioned until the second train is also fit to be put into full-time operations. One sleeper rake has already passed all the necessary trials and has been posted at the ShakurBSidi Coaching Depot at Delhi, waiting to be publicly launched. The ministry, however, emphasizes that one train cannot maintain a dependable, consistent timetable, and a second rake is under construction and is projected to be operational by 15 October 2025. Both trains will be on the same day, Vaishnaw clarified, and that is when the presence of the second unit would be critical in ensuring that there is no interruption of the services.
The schedule of the implementation has given rise to speculation that the first route might be New Delhi-Patna because Bihar is due to go to the polls towards the end of the year. The minister gave suggestions that the second train is ready, and any route can be selected, and work can start on the line, implying flexibility and possible fast growth over the eastern route.
During a wider briefing, together with Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu, Vaishnaw announced a host of major projects that would be implemented in Punjab. The twin cities will have a direct connection to Chandigarh via a new 18 18-kilometre Rajpura-Mohali link that will reduce the distance between the two cities by about 66 kilometres and ease congestion along the current Rajpura-Ambala route. The line will also smooth the route between Ambala-Morinda, increasing regional mobility.
The ministry is also proposing a Vande Bhart service between New Delhi and Firozpur Cantonment. This proposed line would follow a distance of 486 kilometres within 6 hours in 40 minutes, and it will pass all the major stations like Faridkot, Bhatinda (West), Dhuri, Patiala, Ambala Cantonment, Kurukshetra, and Panipat. Vaishnaw urged the Prime Minister to approve the Delhi-Firozpur service as it would help in improving the connectivity in North India.
Having these ambitious plans that are on the table, the Indian Railways is set to provide better and faster journeys, and at the same time extend its network to accommodate the increasing demands of the commuters and the economy.
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