For so long, the high-speed ‘Vande Bharat’ train has either been in Varanasi, the capital of the Prime Minister, or in poll-bound Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. In the next phase, the Ministry of Railways claims that there is a plan to run at least 5 Vande Bharat trains in East India including West Bengal.
Government has announced to run 75 Vande Bharat trains on different routes of the country by August 15. Although the speed limit of this train, which started its first journey between Prime Minister’s Lok Sabha seat Varanasi and Delhi about three-and-a-half years ago, is now capped at 130 kmph, it has the capacity to run at a speed of 160-180 kmph if the track infrastructure is in order. Keeping in mind the assembly polls, Modi recently gifted the Vande Bharat train on two routes – Ahmedabad in Gujarat to Mumbai Central and Amb Andora in Himachal to Delhi. Karnataka votes next year. Hence, the service of Vande Bharat Express from Mysore to Chennai Central has been started this month to reach the voters of that state.
Assembly elections in ten states next year. Railway officials are well aware that political compulsion will be a major factor in choosing the route to India. So they are not telling when the service will start in West Bengal. But a railway official said, “Hopefully, India will have at least two stops at Howrah station within six months.”
