BHUBANESWAR: The railways will hold the trial run of Vande Bharat Express, India’s indigenously designed semi high-speed train, between Howrah and Puri on Friday.
Later it will also conduct a second and third trial run of this train before its flagging off. On the day of the first trial run, this train is scheduled to depart from Howrah at 6.10 am and reach Puri at 12.35 pm on Friday.
In a return direction, this train will leave Puri at 1.50 pm and reach Howrah at 8.30pm the same day. It will have stoppages at six stations — Kharagpur, Bhadrak, Jajpur-Keonjhar Road, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Khurda — between Howrah and Puri. It will halt at stations for two minutes only.
According to sources in the Indian Railways, the second trial run will be held on April 30 from Howrah to Bhadrak and Bhadrak to Howrah. The third trial run will be on May 1 after receiving an update from the Railway Board regarding the inauguration of the Vande Bharat Express rake.
Similarly, third trial run will be decided on May 1 after getting update from the Railway Board regarding inauguration of Vande Bharat Express rake, said official sources.
Sources said the train is likely to chug through Odisha’s tracks in early May. For this, the railways will hold the trial runs. An empty rake of Vande Bharat Express went to Howrah on Wednesday. People tried to catch a glimpse of the train passing between Bhubaneswar and Cuttack stations on Wednesday.
