With an average speed of 75 kmph, the Mumbai-Goa Vande Bharat will be the fastest train between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Madgaon, covering the 586 km distance in 7 hours and 50 minutes from both sides.
The train will have seven commercial stops at Dadar, Thane, Panvel, Khed, Ratnagiri, Kankavli, and Thivim. The train will also have a technical halt at Roha, where boarding and deboarding will not be allowed.
The train was scheduled to be flagged off virtually by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (June 3) at around 11 am, but the event got cancelled due to the Odisha train tragedy on June 2.
With the Mumbai-Goa train, the total number of operational Vande Bharat trains in India will reach 19.
According to the official documents, during the non-monsoon period, this eight-coach train will start at 5.25 am from CSMT and will reach Madgoan at 1.15 pm. On its way back, it will start at 2.35 pm from Madgaon and will reach CSMT at 10.25 pm.
The train will have a sectional speed of up to 120 kmph, the ministry said.
“The sectional speed on the CSMT-Diva stretch will be 105 kmph and on Diva-Roha will be 110 kmph. Both these are falling under the Central Railways. On the Roha-Madgaon stretch of the Konkan Railway, the sectional speed will be 120 kmph,” the ministry added.
It will operate six days a week except Friday. While during the trial run, the train took around seven hours, the commercial run will take a little longer, a ministry official said.
“This Mumbai-Goa route has a lot of rush. So much so that even special trains have to be organised. But this fully AC train will be a great help in easing the load. Goa is a tourist spot while Mumbai is a commercial hub. The train has been a long pending demand and will help in easing the passenger load in this route,” a ministry official told News18 demanding anonymity.
With the flagging off of this train, Mumbai will now have four Vande Bharat trains: one each for Gandhinagar, Shirdi, Solapur, and Madgoan. This will be the fifth Vande Bharat for Maharashtra – one train is operational on the Nagpur-Bilaspur route. This is also the first Vande Bharat for Goa.
Since April 1, the ministry has geared up for the production and delivery of these semi-high-speed made-in-India trains. At least eight pairs of Vande Bharat trains have been inaugurated in this two-month period.
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