BHUBANESWAR: Indian Railways will soon launch Odisha’s second Vande Bharat Express between Puri and Rourkela.
The semi-high-speed train likely to be flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last week of the month will have limited stoppages between the two stations.
Sources said the train will run on the Puri-Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Angul-Rourkela route to cater to the rush between the coastal and western Odisha regions. The train will run six days a week except on Saturdays. It will have halts at Khurda Road, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Angul, Kerejanga, Sambalpur city and Jharsuguda between Puri and Rourkela.
The decision to introduce the train was taken after the entire stretch was upgraded for a maximum permissible speed of 130 mph. As per the tentative timetable, the train will depart Puri at 5 am and reach Rourkela at 12.45 p.m. In the return direction, it will leave Rourkela at 2.10 p.m. and reach Puri at 9.40 p.m. Except for Bhubaneswar, where the train will halt for five minutes, the stoppage is for two minutes at other stations.
Though the date of commencement is yet to be announced, sources said, the train will take seven hours and 45 minutes to cover 505 km on the down line and seven hours and 30 minutes on the up line. While the downline speed is around 65.16 kmph, the upline speed will be around 67.33 kmph. The Jammu Tawi - Sambalpur Express will be slowed down for 30 minutes due to the precedence of the Vande Bharat train.