PM inaugurates new Malda Town to Bengaluru Amrit Bharat train

KOLKATA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Malda Town-Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminus (Bengaluru) Amrit Bharat Express virtually on Saturday.

It was a long-standing demand of residents of Malda, North and South Dinajpur. Commercial operations of this train will start from December 31 at 8:45 am from Malda. South Eastern Railway CPRO Aditya Kumar Chaudhary said that initially, AC coaches would be run and tested on special circuits. There are plans to add AC coaches in the future making the train’s composition similar to other long distance trains but with better facilities.

The fare for upto 500 kilometres is Rs 184 for general and Rs 312 for sleeper, and upto 1,000 kilometres, the fare is Rs 314 for second sitting and Rs 528 for sleeper class.

Amrit Bharat Express is a newly-designed superfast express train service of the Indian Railways. This service will have non-AC sleeper and unreserved coaches. It offers lower fares than the air-conditioned Vande Bharat Express service and is planned as a day-night express train service.

“People who could not avail Vande Bharat will be able to avail services of this train,” an official said.

It has seating capacity for 1,834 passengers. The train has 22 non-ac coaches including two second class luggage coaches, eight general seating coaches and twelve sleeper class coaches. These coaches have a sealed gangway to provide safe transition between coaches and to reduce noise and vibrations.

There is a jerk free semi permanent coupler and sealed vestibule gangway. There are ramps for persons with disabilities as well.

Two WAP-5 locomotives (push-pull configuration) are used at the front and rear ends to ensure efficient acceleration and eliminate the need to switch locomotives at stations, thereby reducing travel time.

Its speed is limited to 130 kmph due to the speed capacity of the Rail track, stops at multiple stations and congestion. It does not have automatic doors but all the modern facilities, including CCTV cameras in every coach, LED lights, mobile charging facility, bio-toilets, sensor taps will be made available. Each compartment of the train will have a fire extinguishing system. The train has been manufactured by Chennai’s Integral Coach Factory.

After manufacturing, the train had a trial run for a long time. It was brought for maintenance at Eastern Railway’s Howrah car shed about a month ago and later the train arrived at Malda Town Station.