KOLKATA: Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi Saturday flagged off the country's first double-decker superfast train from Howrah in West Bengal to Dhanbad in Jharkhand.
The 12383 Up/12384 Dn fully air-conditioned Howrah-Dhanbad Express will run five days a week.
"It has much more comfort level than other trains. It is India's first double-decker train," said a senior Eastern Railway official.
The train, comprising nine coaches, including seven air-conditioned double-decker chair cars, will have 128 seats in each coach and two generator cars.
It will have a maximum permissible speed of 110 kmph. The diatance between Howrah and Dhanbad is about 270 km.
It will start from Dhanbad at 5.00 a.m. every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and arrive at Howrah four hours later at 9.15 a.m.
From Howrah, it will start at 3.20 p.m. on every Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and reach Dhanbad at 7.40 p.m.