Before Introducing Vande Bharat, Restore Older Trains; Requests Passengers’ Body

GUWAHATI: A passengers’ organisation here has requested that the Northeast Frontier Railway first restart services of the 12 passenger trains kept in ‘abeyance’ since the 2020 Covid lockdown before introducing the semi hi-speed Vande Bharat express in Assam.

PM Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the Vande Bharat Express, which will run between West Bengal's Jalpaiguri and Assam’s Guwahati in May.

The majority of these 12 trains were kept in "abeyance" by the railways due to their lack of economic feasibility.

The short-distance trains, according to the Assam Rail Passengers' Association (ARPA), are more crucial for the hundreds of daily passengers.

“Without prior information to passengers, the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) canceled 21 trains during the lockdown, out of which 12 were running in the Assam stretch,” ARPA general secretary Dipankar Sharma said.

NFR CPRO Sabyasachi De said, “In place of these 12 trains, we have introduced many other trains between the same destinations. People have not been deprived of train services.”

Currently, the Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express and Dibrugarh Town Rajdhani Express are the fastest trains between the two cities. Both trains go more than 700 kilometers in about 7:00 (approximate) hours. The NFR zone is divided into five divisions: Tinsukia, Lumding, Rangiya, Alipurduar, and Katihar.

The Vande Bharat railway network has been growing throughout the nation, and Indian Railways is currently extending it to Guwahati, known as the gateway to the northeastern states of India. The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) of Chennai has been instructed by the Railway Board to expedite the production of coaches for the Vande Bharat train for this area. The Vande Bharat train has been introduced on 15 routes around the nation, and on May 14th, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick off the Vande Bharat train on its 16th route, which runs from Guwahati to New Jalpaiguri in Assam.

This train will have 16 carriages and travel at a top speed of 110 kph. The Northeast Frontier Railway is getting ready to launch its new rail line and electrification of the railway tracks is to be completed by the end of the year.

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