PM to flag off Patna-Ranchi Vande Bharat on June 27

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off Patna-Ranchi Vande Bharat Express train via video conferencing on June 27, a senior railway official said.

According to a letter issued by Vivek Kumar Sinha, joint director (coaching) of Railway Board, to the general managers (GMs) concerned on June 23, which has been seen by HT, five Vande Bharat Express trains — Indore-Bhopal, Jabalpur-Rani Kamlapati, KSR Bengaluru City-Dharwad, Patna-Ranchi and CSMT-Madgaon — will be inaugurated on June 27.

The 22349/22350 Ranchi-Patna Vande Bharat train will run on all days, except Tuesday, between Bihar’s capital Patna and Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi, covering a distance of approximately 385 kilometres in six hours.

The Janshatbdi Express (12365) is currently the fastest train on the Patna-Ranchi rail route, taking 7.45 hours to complete the journey after covering a distance of approximately 410 kilometres via 10 railway stations via Gaya, Koderma, Hajaribagh, Gomoh, Bokaro and Muri.

“Vande Bharat will run on the newly laid track. It will start from Patna and complete the journey via Gaya, Koderma, Hazaribagh, Barkakana and Mesra to Ranchi,” according to Birendra Kumar, the chief public relations officer (CPRO) of the Eastern Central Railway (ECR).

A successful trial of the new rake of the train on this route has already been held twice and it covered the total distance in six hours, he said.

The semi high-speed train will leave Patna around 7am and reach Ranchi 1pm. In its return journey, the train will leave from Ranchi around 4.15 pm and reach Patna around 10.05 pm.

The fares were not immediately available.