It was a great moment for the people when Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the maiden run of the sixth edition of Nagpur-Bilaspur ‘Vande Bharat Express’ at Nagpur Railway Station on Sunday. As soon as the train left, the Prime Minister waved his hands and wished the passengers.

Before the train departed, he went inside the train and greeted the passengers. He also interacted with them and the Railway officials. Modi was accompanied by Governor of Maharastra Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Minister of Road Transport Nitin Gadkari and senior officials of Railways.

Passengers travelling by the train said that there was very little noise inside the train and the feeling was like aeroplane travel. They said that people will definitely love travelling by this train. On the occasion of its maiden run Vande Bharat Express was allotted stoppages of two to five minutes at all the stations between Nagpur

and Bilaspur to help people have a close look of this high profile luxurious semi-high speed premium train.

People were also seen standing through the streets and even on roof tops taking videos and pictures of the nicely decorated train. Travelling in Vande Bharat Express with advanced features will be a new experience for the passengers. Besides on board hotspot Wi-Fi facility, GPS based audio-visual passenger information system and automatic sliding doors, the coaches are laced with CCTV cameras and comfortable push-back seats.

After halting at station the gate on the platform side will open automatically but the gate on the other side will not open. The terms and conditions including booking, cancellation and refund in ‘Vande Bharat Express’ will be the same as Shatabdi trains. When the train entered Chhatisgarh a large number of people gathered at Dongargarh Railway station and welcomed it. They also offered sweets to the passengers and train staff. The train was also welcomed at Rajnandgaon, Durg and Raipur by former Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh, Member of Parliament and BJP State President Arun Sao, Vijay Baghel and Rajya Sabha member Saroj Pandey. At Bilaspur colorful cultural programmes were presented as soon as the train reached the zonal station. ‘Vande Bharat Express’ was greeted with Kathak, Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam presented by the school children and local artists. All the passengers and crew members were welcomed by the Railways. The authorities also took feedback from the passengers about their travel experience of this train. South East Central Railway (SECR) Bilaspur had made elaborate preparations to welcome the much awaited train. People were eagerly waiting for this train to commence its journey and as soon as Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the train from Nagpur a wave of happiness ran across Chhattisgarh. All senior Railway authorities, technical team, security officers, public representatives besides a large number of people were present on the inaugural run of the train.