What you should know about India's fastest train Gatimaan Express
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu flagged off the much-awaited Gatimaan Express for Agra from Nizamuddin station in the capital on April 5.
Here are five things about Gatimaan Express you wished to know:
1. Nizamuddin-Agra Gatimaan Express is the first semi-high speed service in railways and will run at a speed of 160 kmph. It is expected to cover the 200 km distance in 100 minutes. Like flights, the train will have hostesses to welcome passengers with roses and usher them to their seats with soft music playing in the coaches.
2. The 12050 Nizamuddin-Agra-Nizamuddin train will run six days a week except Friday on both directions. It will start journey from Nizamuddin at 8.10 am to reach Agra at 9.50 am. In the return direction, the train will leave Agra at 5.50 pm to reach Nizamuddin at 7.30 pm.
3. Equipped with a 5,400 HP electric locomotive, the train will have two Executive AC Chair Car and eight AC Chair Car coaches. It is a bit costlier than the Delhi-Agra Shatabdi Express. The fare for chair car in the fully air-conditioned train has been fixed at Rs 690, while for Executive Class it will be Rs 1,365. In Delhi-Agra Shatabadi Express, the chair car fare is Rs 540 and Rs 1,040 for Executive Class. The train will have a high-power emergency braking system, automatic fire alarm, GPS-based passenger information system and sliding doors in the coaches.
| Gatimaan Express will have hostesses to welcome the passengers and usher them to their seats. |
4. The Gatimaan will have the best possible services, matching the flight services in catering. Since the fare will be 25 per cent higher than Shatabdi Express, catering services in Gatimaan Express will also be better. Catering will also match the standard of airliners and passengers will be greeted with flowers. Both Indian and continental cuisine will be served. Passengers will have an assortment of food to choose from. There will be wholewheat upma, mini dosa, Kanjeevaram idli, fresh cut fruits, aloo kulcha with swiss roll, roasted dry fruit and chicken roll. Chicken sausages with Spanish egg white omelette and date walnut slice cakes will also be served in bone china crockery.
5. Railways plans to roll out such trains on nine more routes including Kanpur-Delhi, Chandigarh-Delhi, Hyderabad-Chennai, Nagpur-Bilaspur, Goa-Mumbai and Nagpur-Secunderabad.