Ahead of the flagging off of the Vande Bharat Express services on the Mumbai-Solapur and Mumbai-Sainagar Shirdi routes in Maharashtra on Friday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Central Railway announced the fare structure.
The one-way fare without catering service on the CSMT-Solapur Vande Bharat train will be Rs 1,000 for chair car and Rs 2,015 for executive chair car, while the fares for the two classes with catering will be Rs 1,300 and Rs 2,365, respectively, a CR official said.
The one-way journey ticket without catering service for CSMT to Sainagar Shirdi will be Rs 840 and Rs 1670 for chair car and executive chair car, respectively, while the ticket prices with catering service will be Rs 975 and Rs 1840, respectively, he added.
The Mumbai-Solapur Vande Bharat Express will cover the 455 kilometre distance between the country's commercial capital and the premier textile city in 6 hours and 30 minutes. It will improve connectivity between the two cities and also facilitate travel to important pilgrimage centres like Siddheshwar in Solapur, Akkalkot, Tuljapur, Pandharpur near Solapur and Alandi in Pune district.
The Mumbai-Sainagar Shirdi Vande Bharat Express will take 5 hours and 25 minutes to cover the 343 kilometre journey to one of the India's most patronised temple towns and other pilgrimage centres in Nashik, Trimbakeshwar and Shani Singanapur, reducing the current time by around two hours
While existing superfast trains take 7 hours 55 minutes to cover the Mumbai-Solapur route, the Vande Bharat service will complete it in 6-and-half hours, with halts at Dadar, Kalyan, Pune and Kurduwadi stations. The CSMT-Solapur Vande Bharat Express will depart from CSMT at 4.05 pm and reach Solapur at 10.40 pm, while it will depart from Solapur it at 6.05 am and reach CSMT at 12.35 pm. It won't run on Wednesday from CSMT and on Thursday from Solapur.
The CSMT-Sainagar Shirdi service, which will be the 10th Vande Bharat train in the country, will run six days a week except Tuesday, CR officials said. "Maharashtra will have four Vande Bharat trains, including two interstate and two intrastate services," the CR official said.
The Vande Bharat rakes, built in Integral Coach Factory near Chennai, arrived in the city on February 2 and 6, and then underwent trials in Bhor Ghat (Khandala Ghat) between Karjat and Lonavala as well as Thal Ghat (Kadara Ghat) between Kasara and Igatpuri to test its capability to travel on the steep gradient on both routes. The trials were successful and the two semi high-speed trainsets managed to travel without bankers, additional locomotives deployed as support to "push" trains on the incline, officials added.
