Having received the nod from the Commissioner for Railway Safety after successful trial runs recently, the South Central Railway will run the new air-conditioned double-decker bi-weekly superfast trains from Kacheguda to Guntur on May 13 and to Tirupati on May 14.
The services were announced in the interim Railway Budget-2014. Accordingly, train no. 22118 will leave Kacheguda at 5.30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays, starting from May 13 and reach Guntur at 10.40 a.m. On its return, train no. 22117 will leave Guntur at 12.45 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays and reach here at 5.55 p.m.
Train no. 22120 will leave here at 6.45 a.m. every Wednesday and Saturday and reach Tirupati at 6.15 p.m. In the return direction, no. 22119 will leave Tirupati at 5.45 a.m. on Thursdays and Sundays and reach here at 5.15 p.m.
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SCR General Manager P.K. Srivastava said the trains were being introduced without delay so that they could meet the summer rush and traffic demands of the busy season.
They would enhance connectivity between the twin cities and Guntur and Tirupati. The double-decker trains will consist of 10 double-decker air-conditioned chair cars and two power cars.
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An important feature of the double-decker trains is that it comes with the new VESDA (very early smoke/fire detection with alarm system), for the first time in Indian Railways. Advance reservations for these trains will commence at 8 a.m. on May 9 (Friday) and the fare structure would be similar to that of other air-conditioned chair car coaches on normal superfast mail and express trains.