New Delhi:
Rationalising the fares of Vande Bharat Express or Train 18, the railways on Tuesday said an air-conditioned chair car ticket for a Delhi-Varanasi trip would cost Rs 1,760, instead of Rs 1,850, and the executive class fare will be Rs 3,310, instead of RS 3,520. On the return journey, the chair car ticket would cost Rs 1,700 and the executive car ticket will be priced at Rs 3,260, a railway order said.
Both the fares are inclusive of the catering charges. Now, the chair car fares are 1.4 times the base price of Shatabdi trains running the same distance and the executive class fares are 1.3 times of first-class air-conditioned seating in the premium train, it said. The train has two classes of tickets -- executive class and chair car -- and will have differently priced meals.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off India's first engineless train Vande Bharat Express on February 15 from the New Delhi Railway station, a senior official of the ministry told PTI. Train 18, which was recently named Vande Bharat Express by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, has been manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai. It became India's fastest train by hitting speeds of over 180 kmph during a trial run on a section of the Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani route. "The PM will flag off the train at 10 am on February 15 and there will be a function in which he will give a speech as well. It's a matter of great pride for us as this is the Railways' first indigenous train," the official said.
The 16-coach train will eventually replace the 30-year-old Shatabdi Express. This train will run between Delhi and Varanasi.
What is Train 18?
# It is India’s first engineless train which has been manufactured by Integral Coach Factory, Chennai.
# It recently became India's fastest train by hitting speeds of over 180 kmph during a trial run on a section of the Delhi-Rajdhani route.
# It will replace Shatabdi trains and will run between Delhi and Varanasi.
# Recently, the Indian Railways has named Train 18 as Vande Bharat Express, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said. The train, which is set to run between Delhi and Varanasi at a maximum speed of 160 km per hour, will be flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon.
# The 16-coach train was made under the government's Make in India project. The fully air-conditioned train will stop at Kanpur and Allahabad and will have two executive chair cars.
# The gleaming, blue-nosed train comes fitted with amenities on a par with the best in the world - on-board Wi-Fi, GPS-based passenger information system, touch-free bio-vacuum toilets, LED lighting, mobile charging points, and a climate control system that adjusts the temperature according to occupancy and weather.
