Puri-Rourkela Vande Bharat Express flag off on Sept 24, Odisha's 2nd VB train

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off nine Vande Bharat Express trains on September 24, 2023. Among these 9 trains will be the Odisha's second Vande Bharat Express train that will run on the Puri-Rourkela-Puri route, PTI reported quoting a railway official.

The train will be flagged off by the prime minister virtually along with some other Vande Bharat Express trains across the country, a press release by the South Eastern Railway said.

The Howrah-Puri Vande Bharat is the first semi-high speed train in the Eastern state of India. 

The distance between Puri and Rourkela will be covered in seven hours and thirty minutes. The semi high speed train will depart from Puri at 5 am and reach Rourkela at 12:45 pm the same day.

In the return journey, the train will depart Rourkela at 2:10 pm and will reach Puri at 9.40 pm the same day, it said. The train will run six days a week, except Saturday.

It will stop at Khurda Road, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Angul, Sambalpur city and Jharsuguda stations enroute.

The introduction of the train will greatly benefit the pilgrims, traders, students and tourists by reducing the travel time between Puri and Rourkela, said the SER release.

The prime minister had flagged off Odisha's first Vande Bharat Express from Puri to Howrah in the virtual mode in May this year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch nine Vande Bharat Express trains on Sunday, September 24, 2023 virtually.

With this, the total number of semi-high speed trains in the country will increase to 34.

Among these Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are expected to get most rakes, while South India and East India will get 2 Vande Bharat trains each.

As of now, 25 Vande Bharat Express trains are running across India, covering 50 routes, 25 each up and down. Four of these are in the Northern Zone, 3 in Southern and Central Zones, 2 in Western, West Central and North Western Railway Zones and 1 in South East Central, Eastern, East Coast, South Central, South Eastern, Northeast Frontier, East Central, South Western and North Eastern Railway.