Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday announced that Jaipur will receive a Vande Bharat Express train on March 24 and it would run in one section of railway either on March 31 or first week of April.
After inspecting the Delhi-Jaipur rail section during his travel in New Delhi-Ajmer Shatabdi Express and taking feedback from passengers this morning, Vaishnaw told media at the railway station here that he found that the requirement of maintenance for the Vande Bharat train was perfectly ready.
As the Delhi-Jaipur rail route having low lying electricity wire due to running of some double-deck containers, a special pantograph (an apparatus mounted on the roof of an electric train to collect power through contact with an overhead line) was also got prepared and the new train would arrive in Jaipur on March 24, he said.
A team of technicians and mechanics have already reached Chennai for training, he added. When asked to reveal the route for the new train, the Minister said: “Please wait. The route will be disclosed to you soon”.
Comparing the previous railway budget for Rajasthan during 2009-2014 which was merely Rs.600-700 crore, the Minister said it has increased 14 times up to Rs.8500 to 9000 cr for new projects in Rajasthan.
Eight-two stations in Rajasthan would completely be ‘World Class Stations’ including that of Jaipur in near future, and the railway teams were working on it, he elaborated.
Electrification on tracks, gauge conversion and doubling of rail lines on major routes were underway to achieve the goal of Complete Transformation of Rail services in Rajasthan, he claimed.