After running on their inaugural runs, the Amrit Bharat trains flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent-most two-day programme in the state are all set to have commercial services this week.
Mr Modi, during his visit to West Bengal on 17-18 January, flagged off five Amrit Bharat Express trains along with the country’s first ever Vande Bharat sleeper between Kolkata and Guwahati. Of the five, two trains are under the Eastern Railway. According to official sources, the newly launched Amrit Bharat trains are to kick off commercial operations in the next one or two days.
In the Eastern Railway, the Banaras-Sealdah Amrit Bharat is to run on its first commercial service from 23 January, while the one from Sealdah to Banaras direction would start revenue operations on 24 January. From Howrah, the Howrah-Anand Vihar Amrit Bharat is to kick off commercial service on 22 January while Anand Vihar to Howrah train would start regular operations from 24 January. As learnt from sources in the Eastern Railway, the ticket booking facility for the two trains have already started.
The other four trains 16107/16108 Tambaram-Santragachi-Tambaram, 20604/20603 Nagercoil-New Jalpaiguri-Nagercoil, 20610/20609 Tiruchchirapalli-New Jalpaiguri-Tiruchchirapalli and 16523 SMVT Bengaluru–Balurghat-SMVT Bengaluru Express Amrit Bharat Express were also flagged off by the PM on 18 January. Of the four, the 16107 Tambaram-Santragachi Amrit Bharat Express is to commercially run from Tambaram every Friday starting from 23 January while the 16108 Santragachi-Tambaram Amrit Bharat Express is to begin revenue operations from 24 January.
Of the two trains of the NFR, 20604 Nagercoil-New Jalpaiguri Amrit Bharat Express is to welcome passengers on board from 25 January from Nagercoil side and from 28 January from New Jalpaiguri. The third Amrit Bharat Express train 20610 Tiruchchirapalli-New Jalpaiguri Amrit Bharat Express is run commercially from Tiruchchirappalli from 28 January. In the return direction, 20609 New Jalpaiguri–Tiruchchirapalli Amrit Bharat Express is to kick off regular operations from New Jalpaiguri from 30 January.
Another train that also saw the green signal during the PM’s two-day programme was the 16523 SMVT Bengaluru–Balurghat-SMVT Bengaluru Express. According to the South Eastern Railway, the train will run on its first revenue service fromSMVT Bengaluru from 21 January and from Balurghat to SMVT Bengaluru from 24 January.