1 new Vande Bharat train to reach today, other on Feb 06

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to launch the Mumbai-Solapur and Mumbai-Shirdi trains on Feb 10

First India Bureau

Mumbai: One of the two Vande Bharat Express trains which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to launch from Mumbai on February 10 will likely reach the city on Friday morning, officials said; the other is likely to arrive on

February 06.

The new Vande Bharat Express trains will service the Mumbai-Solapur and Mumbai-Shirdi routes.

Both trains, manufactured at the Chennai-based Integral Coach Factory, will be fitted with parking brakes, following which they will undergo trials in the hilly ghat section on the outskirts of Mumbai to check whether they need deployment of additional locomotives to cross this terrain.

Having a gradient of 1:37--meaning there is a rise of 1m for every 37m run--both Bhor and

Thal ghats are among the toughest Railway ghat sections in the county, officials said. Hence, at present all trains passing through these ghats are hauled up by additional locomotives (called bankers) from the Mumbai side. In ghat sections bankers are used for pushing trains besides avoiding incidents of train roll back in case of parting of coaches. But the process of attaching and detaching bankers takes at least a few minutes, increasing travel time due to technical halts, an official explained.