PM Modi to inaugurate Puri-Howrah Vande Bharat Express virtually on May 18

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Puri-Howrah Vande Bharat Express on Thursday.
The train will be flagged off from Puri at around 1pm by the Prime Minister virtually.

The launch programme will be graced by railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at Puri station, from where the train will commence its inaugural run.
This is the second Vande Bharat Express that West Bengal is getting after the Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express.

Commuters can book tickets from Wednesday and ride the train from Saturday. This will be the fastest train to Puri from Howrah, with about 500km covered in six hours and a half hours.
Regular run of the 22895/22896 Howrah-Puri-Howrah Vande Bharat Express will commence from May 20, the official said.

The train will run six days a week, except Thursdays, the official said.
Bhaskar Pyne, member, Eastern Railway Fans’ Club, said passengers would have the fastest train as an option.

Prosenjit Das, who runs a hotel in Puri, said, “On Vande Bharat, I will be able to save half-a-day.”
The train will depart Howrah at 6.10 am and reach Puri at 12.35 pm and in the return direction, it will depart Puri at 1.50 pm and arrive at Howrah at 8.30 pm.
The train, with 16 coaches, will stop at Kharagpur, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur Keonjhar Road, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Khurda Road.