Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the second Vande Bharat Express between two Telugu speaking States from Secunderabad to the temple town of Tirupati on a red carpeted platform no 10 of the Secunderabad station here on Saturday morning.
Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development of Northeast Region G. Kishan Reddy, also Secunderabad MP, Governor Dr. Tamilisai Soundarajan, TS Minister for Animal Husbandry and Cinematography T. Sinivasa Yadav, Chief Secretary Shanti Kumari, DGP Anjani Kumar and others were present at the venue.
The entire platform 10 and platform 9 were out of bounds to passengers and the general public as the the function commenced with Mr. Modi and other dignitaries boarding the new eight coach Vande Bharat train where he interacted with the children drawn from different schools.
Within a few minutes, he got down and walked onto a special stage to wave the green flag for the new service to commence its maiden journey towards Tirupati with officials, media and rail travel bloggers. . The regular service for the train will be starting from tomorrow and the executive chair. The journey can be completed in 8.30 hours instead of the usual 11 hours.
Mr. Modi also greeted the people gathered on the other side of the platform nine before immediately proceeding towards the Parade Grounds where he laid the foundation stone for the modernisation works of Secunderabad station, launch of the Secunderabad-Mahabubnagar doubling and electrified line and MMTS Phase Two suburban train services of Secunderabad-Medchal and Lingampalli-Umdanagar.
There will be 20 services between Secunderabad and Medchal with the first train starting from 5.45 a.m.and last train at 9.30 p.m. reaching the terminal station at 10.50 p.m. Another 20 MMTS train services between Lingampalli and Umdanagar starting from 5.50 a.m. in the morning to 9.45 p.m. with the last train reaching terminal station at 11.45 p.m. The service from Umdanagar will start from 4 a.m. and last train is at 8.10 p.m. reaching terminal station at 10.10 p.m.
