Vande Bharat Trains: Officials said on Monday that the Railways may start three more Vande Bharat trains in South India.
The routes being considered for the new services are Kachiguda in Telangana to Bengaluru in Karnataka and Secunderabad in Telangana to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh and Pune in Maharashtra.
Assembly elections in Karnataka and Telangana are likely to be held later this year, while Andhra Pradesh is likely to have assembly elections in 2024.
The BJP, under its Mission South, is focusing on its performance in the southern states in the next parliamentary elections to be held in 2024.
Railways had launched South India’s first Vande Bharat Express train on the Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysore route in November this year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi flags off the fifth rake of Vande Bharat Express at Krantiveer Sangolli Railway Station in Bengaluru.
Officials said that the Secunderabad-Vizag Vande Bharat Express, which was launched recently, is running with 100 per cent passengers since its launch.
Sources said the railway divisions of South Central Railway have been asked to upgrade the infrastructure of at least one coaching depot in Secunderabad, Hyderabad and Vijayawada divisions for maintenance of Vande Bharat trains to these destinations.
Indian Railways plans to run 75 Vande Bharat trains by the end of this year and 400 trains in the next three years.
So far, Vande Bharat trains have been started on various routes including Nagpur-Bilaspur, Delhi-Varanasi, Gandhinagar-Mumbai and Chennai-Mysore.
The Vande Bharat Express is designed and manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) at Perambur, Chennai, under a major Make-in-India initiative.
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