Central Railway to soon start Vande Bharat train on Mumbai-Shirdi-Mumbai-Solapur route

Central Railways (CR) is soon going to start Vande Bharat train service between Mumbai-Shirdi and Mumbai-Solapur.

Reports stated that both the train services are likely to be flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 10.

With this, Maharashtra will be the first state to get maiden intra-state Vande Bharat Express trains; whereas it will be the third train running from Mumbai.

The CSMT-Solapur Vande Bharat service was to begin on January 19 but the launch was postponed. The flag-off ceremony is yet to be approved by the Prime Minister's Office, but the Central Railway officials have already started preparations. The officials visited CSMT on Sunday to review the situation.

The Vande Bharat rake is expected to arrive in the first week of February, after which route trials will be conducted.

The Vande Bharat train from CSMT – Solapur route will run six days a week. The semi-high speed train will not operate on Monday from CSMT to Solapur and on Thursday from Solapur to CSMT.

The train is likely to leave Mumbai at 4:10 pm and reach its destination Solapur around 10: 40 pm.

It will halt at Dadar, Thane, Lonavala and Kurduwadi. The CSMT-Solapur train will cover the distance in 6.5 hours.

Also, for the Mumbai-Shirdi route, Vande Bharat will leave from CSMT around 6:15 am and reach Shirdi by 12:10 pm.

The CSMT-Shirdi Sainagar Express will cover the distance between the cities in 6 hours. Enroute this train will halt at Dadar, Thane and Nashik road.

Both the trains will have 16 coaches and can accommodate 1128 passengers.

The new version of Vande Bharat train can accelerate from 0-100 kmph in just 52 seconds and has a maximum speed of 180 kmph. The air conditioning system is 15% more energy efficient.

India launched its first semi high-speed train, the Vande Bharat Express, in 2019. The train, developed by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, has an intelligent braking system, enabling better acceleration and deceleration.

All the coaches are equipped with automatic doors, a GPS-based audio-visual passenger information system, onboard Wi-Fi and comfortable seats. The executive class has rotating chairs.