Tata-Berhampur Vande Bharat trial run successful
BHUBANESWAR: Trial run of the fourth Vande Bharat Express of the state connecting Berhampur with Tatanagar was conducted on Sunday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to flag off the train at Tatanagar on September 15.
Railway sources said the train will have 11 stoppages between the originating and destination stations and run through Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi’s home district Keonjhar.
As part of the trial run, the train that began its journey from Tatanagar at about 5.20 am, arrived at Keonjhar station at 8.58 am and departed at 9.04 am. Hundreds of locals congregated at the station to get a glimpse of it. It reached Berhampur at 2.14 pm.
The train will cover 587 km in around 9 hours and 10 minutes. It will depart from Tata at 5.20 am and reach Berhampur at 2.30 pm the same day. In the return journey, the train will depart from Berhampur at 3 pm and reach Tata at 11.55 pm the same day. For the return trip, the train will take 8 hours and 55 minutes.
As per the proposed schedule, the train will run six days a week except Tuesdays. It will have halts at Chaibasa, Dangoaposi, Banspani, Nayagarh, Keonjhar, Harichandanpur, Jakhapura, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Khurda Road and Balugaon between Tatanagar and Berhampur.
The earlier decision to introduce the train between Tatanagar and Puri was modified owing to certain constraints at Puri station. The new train is expected to boost communication between Keonjhar and other cities including Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Berhampur and Tatanagar. Now four Express trains run on Bhubaneswar-Keonjhar route apart from a couple of MEMU trains.