Indian Railways is scheduled to launch the new Vande Bharat Express train on the Mumbai-Goa route. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the train tomorrow, June 3, via video conferencing. Before the official launch of the train, the Indian transporter completed a successful trial run of the train in the Konkan region. The official Twitter handle of the Ministry of Railways shared the video of the train traversing tracks in the Western Ghats.

The video starts by showing a bird’s eye view of the Vande Bharat Express train crossing a river bridge from multiple angles. A few seconds in, the train is shown cruising on tracks covered with trees on both sides. It is to be noted that the Western Ghats offer some of the most scenic views from a train, with the landscape changing between hills, forests, and rivers.

Once launched, the Mumbai-Goa Vande Bharat Express will reduce the travel time between the two cities. Currently, the fastest between Mumbai and Goa takes around 8 hours and 50 minutes to complete the journey. However, the semi-high-speed train on the route will cover a distance of 586 km in 7 hours and 50 minutes.

The train will depart from Mumbai for Goa at 5.25 in the morning and reach Madgaon at 1.15 in the afternoon. On its return journey, the train will depart at 2.35 pm and arrive at its destination at 10.25 pm. The train will start running regularly on June 4.

There will be ten stations where the Mumbai Goa Vande Bharat Express will stop. The train will leave Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and stop in Dadar, Thane, Panvel, Roha, Khed, Ratnagiri, Kankavli, Thivim, and Madgaon. The same stops will be visited on the train’s return journey from Mumbai to Goa.

The Vande Bharat Express is currently operating on 18 routes in India. These semi-high-speed trains cover the 22 states and Union Territories of India. These domestically made state-of-the-art trains provide the most services in Delhi and Mumbai.

Source: Bureau