<p>Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Vande Bharat Express (Train 18), billed as India's fastest train, at New Delhi Railway Station on Friday.</p>.<p>The PM, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and top railway officials, were present while flagging off the semi high-speed train, which will run between New Delhi and Varanasi.</p>.<p>The commercial operations of the train between two destinations will start from February 17.</p>.<p>The train had hit the speed of over 180 kmph during a trial run on a section of the Delhi-Varanasi route. The semi-high speed Train 18, which has been recently rechristened Vande Bharat Express has travel classes like the Shatabdi trains but with better facilities, said the Ministry of Railways.</p>.<p>The Vande Bharat Express, the country first high semi high-speed train, was manufactured under the 'Make in India' initiative at Indian Coach Factory in Chennai. Earlier the train was named as Train-18 as it is completely in-house design and manufacture, computer modelling and working with a large number of suppliers for system integration in just 18 months.</p>.<p>Gradually Vande Bharat Express will replace Shatabdi Express.</p>.<p>In Vande Bharat Express, coaches are equipped with automatic doors, GPS based audio-visual passenger information system, on-board hotspot Wi-Fi for entertainment purposes, and very comfortable seating. Every coach has a pantry with a facility to serve hot meals said the statement from Railways.</p>.<p>Adding up the green footprints, the train has regenerative braking system in the Vande Bharat Express coaches which can save up to 30% of electrical energy. All toilets are the bio-vacuum type, said the railways.</p>.<p>Vande Bharat Express has 16 air-conditioned coaches of which 2 are executive class coaches. The total seating capacity is 1,128 passengers.</p>.<p>The chair car fares are 1.4 times the base price of Shatabdi trains running the same distance and that of the executive class 1.3 times of a first class air-conditioned ticket in the premium train.</p>.<p>The all air-conditioned luxury train will take around eight hours to travel between Delhi and Varanasi, halting at only two stations - Kanpur and Allahabad.</p>.<p>No other railway passes like privilege, complimentary, post-retirement complimentary passes shall be permissible in this train," said railway official adding that tickets include meal charges.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Vande Bharat Express (Train 18), billed as India's fastest train, at New Delhi Railway Station on Friday.</p>.<p>The PM, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and top railway officials, were present while flagging off the semi high-speed train, which will run between New Delhi and Varanasi.</p>.<p>The commercial operations of the train between two destinations will start from February 17.</p>.<p>The train had hit the speed of over 180 kmph during a trial run on a section of the Delhi-Varanasi route. The semi-high speed Train 18, which has been recently rechristened Vande Bharat Express has travel classes like the Shatabdi trains but with better facilities, said the Ministry of Railways.</p>.<p>The Vande Bharat Express, the country first high semi high-speed train, was manufactured under the 'Make in India' initiative at Indian Coach Factory in Chennai. Earlier the train was named as Train-18 as it is completely in-house design and manufacture, computer modelling and working with a large number of suppliers for system integration in just 18 months.</p>.<p>Gradually Vande Bharat Express will replace Shatabdi Express.</p>.<p>In Vande Bharat Express, coaches are equipped with automatic doors, GPS based audio-visual passenger information system, on-board hotspot Wi-Fi for entertainment purposes, and very comfortable seating. Every coach has a pantry with a facility to serve hot meals said the statement from Railways.</p>.<p>Adding up the green footprints, the train has regenerative braking system in the Vande Bharat Express coaches which can save up to 30% of electrical energy. All toilets are the bio-vacuum type, said the railways.</p>.<p>Vande Bharat Express has 16 air-conditioned coaches of which 2 are executive class coaches. The total seating capacity is 1,128 passengers.</p>.<p>The chair car fares are 1.4 times the base price of Shatabdi trains running the same distance and that of the executive class 1.3 times of a first class air-conditioned ticket in the premium train.</p>.<p>The all air-conditioned luxury train will take around eight hours to travel between Delhi and Varanasi, halting at only two stations - Kanpur and Allahabad.</p>.<p>No other railway passes like privilege, complimentary, post-retirement complimentary passes shall be permissible in this train," said railway official adding that tickets include meal charges.</p>
