Hyderabad: The Indian Railways has decided to introduce two new Vande Bharat services from the city, towards Maharashtra, bolstering rail connectivity between Telangana and the neighbouring state.
According to a TOI report, the new services will be introduced between the Hyderabad-Pune and Secunderabad-Nanded routes.
The new services are expected to reduce travel duration by two to three hours. This will be the third Vande Bharat service from Hyderabad to Maharashtra, after Nagpur.
At present, four Vande Bharat trains operate from Hyderabad, connecting Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Yeshvantpur, and Nagpur. With the addition of the new services, connectivity to Maharashtra will see a major boost.
Railways mull to replace Shatabdi Express
In the meantime, the railways are also considering the option to replace the Secunderabad–Pune Shatabdi Express with the Vande Bharat.
The Shatabdi covers the journey in about eight and a half hours, operating six days a week with limited halts. It runs with a 13-coach configuration, including two AC executive class coaches, nine AC chair cars, and two EOG coaches.
The move reportedly comes amid the increasing popularity of the existing Vande Bharat trains on the Secunderabad–Visakhapatnam, Secunderabad–Tirupati and Kacheguda–Yeshvantpur routes, consistently running at high occupancy. Owing to this, the railways have proposed two more Vande Bharat services from Secunderabad.
This will place the South Central Railway (SCR) among the zones with the highest number of these indigenous semi-high-speed trains.
