Passengers will have to pay more for travelling on New Delhi-Varanasi superfast Mahamana Express as the Railways has raised the fare by 15 per cent. The thrice-a-week train with refurbished coaches and added facilities will take less than 14 hours to cover the journey between Delhi and Varanasi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to flag off the new train from his Parliamentary constituency Varanasi on January 22 at 11 a.m.
Since the facilities and other amenities are substantially improved in the AC and Sleeper coaches at an increased cost, there was a need to increase the fare by 15 per cent for the new service, a senior Railway Ministry official said.
Railways plans to introduce two more such trains soon.
The train will depart from New Delhi station at 6.35 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from January 25 and will reach Varanasi at 8.25 a.m. the next day.
The train will depart from Varanasi at 6.35 p.m. every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from January 26 to reach New Delhi at 8.25 a.m. the next day. Equipped with features like controlled discharged water tap, new toilet modules, exhaust fans, LED lights, snack tables for side berth passengers and use of fire retardation materials, 18 coaches comprising AC-1, AC-2, Sleeper Class and General Class bogies were recently showcased by railways here. Consisting of one First AC, one AC II Tier, Nine sleeper class, four General Class & two second class-cum-luggage van coaches, the 22418/22417 Superfast Express will stop at Ghaziabad, Moradabad, Bareilly, Lucknow, Sultanpur and Jaunpur City stations en-route in both directions.
As for added facilities, the coaches are being provided with ergonomically designed ladders for climbing up to upper berths in all sleeper coaches, aesthetically designed toilet modules have been provided with enhanced passenger amenities like a bigger mirror, platform washbasin, controlled discharged water tap, odour control system, passenger address system and GPS-based passenger information system. -- PTI
