Mumbai may soon get two Vande Bharat Express trains, connecting the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to Shirdi and Solapur, MidDay has reported.
These will be the 9th and 10th Vande Bharat trains in the country.
As of now, there is only one Vande Bharat train service originating from Mumbai, which is the Mumbai-Gandhinagar Express. This train made its commercial debut on 1 October, after being officially launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
The report of the 9th and 10th Vande Bharat trains finding a home in Mumbai comes just weeks after Prime Minister Modi flagged off the 8th Vande Bharat connecting Secunderabad and Visakhapatnam. On this route, the train will cover a distance of 699 kms in 8 hours and 30 minutes.
The Indian Railways is currently working on a shorter, eight-coach version of the Vande Bharat train. This will allow the Railways to increase the number of Vande Bharat trains across the country and also connect tier-two cities like Jalandhar with Ludhiana or Coimbatore with Madurai.
A prototype for the same train is being made at Integral Coach Factory (ICF). The first such eight-coach Vande Bharat is slated to roll out in March-end this year, as the design for the mini-Vande Bharat Express with seating arrangement is almost final.
While the 16-coach Vande Bharat train is estimated to cost Rs 134 crore, the eight-coach is likely to cost around Rs 70 crore.