Delhi to Katra run, now in just 7 hours

Covering a distance in 11 to 12 hours, other things remaining the same, from Delhi to the holy town of Katra by train will now be a thing of the past as from next month only , the distance would be covered in just 6 to 7 hours. This would be possible by running India’s fastest train christened as “Vande Bharat Express” which is a train of its own class fulfilling standards of a world class train. It is a ‘Chair Car’ train known as ‘Train- 18′ . As is fairly known , the successful trial run of this prestigious train on the designated route was conducted on July 22. It is a matter of great satisfaction that the trial run encountered no problem at all which has officially been confirmed by a senior officer of the Northern Railways while sharing the heartening news with the media persons at Katra. This train is slated to run twice a week and in the very near future, the likelihood of its running with more frequency and even on daily basis, cannot be ruled out.
In the present era of valuing time much more than anything else, what more could the passengers especially the pilgrims for the world famous shrine of Mata Shree Vaishno Devi want to save time on travelling and using it for sightseeing and visiting spots of importance in and around Jammu . This train is equipped with all the modern facilities including WiFi , CCTV cameras , automatic doors etc which can give a feel of the travel by a plane including the overall time being near equal to what is expended in air travel from originating and destination points. This measure of the Railways was bound to give a tremendous fillip to the tourist flow in the region, especially Katra bound pilgrim passengers resulting in increased associated economic activities.
Needless to add, this fastest train was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 14 to run between Delhi and Varanasi. Other routes were gradually going to be covered by this type of train. Since Indian Railways are on modernization mode with intent to bring in innovative measures to increase speed of the trains to save passengers’ time and ensure better comforts and facilities for the travelling public, investments on large scale were needed to have necessary infrastructure including strengthening and renovating track lining system to ensure running of fastest trains between more places.
All eyes are set to have this train chugged between Delhi – Jammu- Katra , though with lesser noise but a system fitted to avoid damage due to cattle run-over , possibly by the Independence day having a breathtaking speed of 130 kmph with only three halts of two minutes each at Ambala, Ludhiana and Jammu stations respectively. This route, it may be reiterated , had been identified by the Railways Board for running of the fastest train of India in order to make the best of the high traffic volume due to the pilgrimage destination of the worldwide fame. It is, however, a travesty that this train was subjected to some incidents of throwing stones on it and damaging costly glasses when it was flagged off in February this year which has now been taken care of by providing a protecting mechanism to guard against such incidents. While safety of the passengers is given top priority, it is obligatory as well on the travelling passengers in not lagging behind in reciprocating the Railways’ gesture of starting such trains by using the fixtures and fittings optimally but unscathed.

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