Indian Railways will start operating Vande Bharat trains on five more routes from June 26. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to launch the semi-high-speed trains via video conferencing.
The routes on which the five trains will run are - Mumbai-Goa, Bangalore-Hubli, Patna-Ranchi, Bhopal-Indore and Bhopal-Jabalpur.
The Patna-Ranchi Vande Bharat train recently (June 12) completed the first phase of its first trial run. More trial runs will be conducted between Barkakana and Ranchi.
The railway ministry had cancelled the launch of the Mumbai-Goa Vande Bharat train earlier this month due to the rail tragedy in Odisha.
This is the first time that five Vande Bharat trains will start operations on the same day.
While such launches in the past have seen a lot of fanfare, it will be a relatively austere event this time in view of the Odisha accident.
This will be the first launch of new Vande Bharat trains after the devastating triple train accident which took place in Balasore, Odisha, earlier this month. At least 288 people lost their lives in the tragic incident.
