The Vande Bharat Express trains are quickly catching the fancy of the nation, with each route receiving much appreciation from train passengers. Such is the importance of the Vande Bharat trains that each route is flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, either in person or virtually. The Indian Railways is betting big on these trains and is expected to add 300 trains in the coming years and is inducting newer routes at a very rapid pace. Launched back in 2018 with only one route, Vande Bharat Express now runs on 14 routes across in India, with four new routes inaugurated in April 2023 alone.
Recently, PM Modi flagged off the 14th Vande Bharat Express train in India running in Ajmer-Jaipur-Delhi Cantt route, a first for the state of Rajasthan and also the world’s first semi-high-speed passenger train running on the high-rise overhead electric (OHE) territory. PM Modi virtually inaugurated the train, that ran from Delhi Cantt to Jaipur on its inaugural run, followed by regular Ajmer-Delhi daily run.
Earlier this month, PM Modi inaugurated two Vande Bharat Express on the same day, which happened to be the 12th and 13th semi-high speed trains in India. During his recent visit to Tamil Nadu, the PM inaugurated Chennai-Coimbatore (Kovai) Vande Bharat Express. He also flagged off the Secunderabad-Tirupati Vande Bharat Express on the same day.
He also inaugurated Bhopal-New Delhi Vande Bharat Express at the start of the month, which became the fastest train in India, breaching a maximum speed of 160 kmph on Agra-Nizamuddin stretch of the Indian Railways.
Vande Bharat Express City Wise Distribution
Among the cities covered, the Indian Railways has planned to start maximum Vande Bharat Express trains from Metro cities, connecting prominent towns in a vicinity of 500-800km. Among these, Delhi gets the maximum 5 Vande Bharat Trains, Mumbai gets 3, Chennai gets 2, and Secundrabad also gets 2 of these trains. Kolkata, on the other hand, has only one Vande Bharat train, but will soon get at least 3 more of these trains.
Full list of Vande Bharat Express routes in India:
Route 1: New Delhi – Varanasi Vande Bharat Express
Route 2: New Delhi – Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra (J&K) Vande Bharat Express
Route 3: Gandhinagar and Mumbai Vande Bharat Express
Route 4: New Delhi to Amb Andaura in Himachal Pradesh Vande Bharat Express
Route 5: Chennai-Mysuru Vande Bharat Express
Route 6: Nagpur-Bilaspur Vande Bharat Express
Route 7: Howrah – New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express
Route 8: Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam Vande Bharat Express
Route 9: Mumbai-Sainagar Shirdi Vande Bharat Express
Route 10: Mumbai-Solapur Vande Bharat Express
Route 11: Bhopal-New Delhi Vande Bharat Express
Route 12: Chennai- Coimbatore Vande Bharat Express
Route 13: Secundrabad-Tirupati Vande Bharat Express
Route 14: Ajmer-Delhi Cantt Vande Bharat Express