PM Modi Inaugurates Phase-1 Of Nagpur Metro And Flags Off Vande Bharat Train To Bilaspur

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today (11 December) inaugurated the first phase of Nagpur metro and flagged off Vande Bharat Express connecting Nagpur and Bilaspur.

The Prime Minister was accompanied by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Eknath Shinde, the Governor of Maharashtra, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari.

PM Inaugurates Nagpur Metro Phase-1

The Phase-1 of Nagpur Metro comprises a 39-km-long elevated stretch, with 38 stations and two depots.

The entire stretch has been divided into two corridors: North-South (Line-1) and East-West (Line-2).

The 19.6-km-long North-South corridor with 18 stops will operate between Khapri and Automotive Square.

The East-West corridor with a length of 18.5 km connects Prajapati Nagar on the eastern part of the city with Lokmanya Nagar in the western part of the city and has 20 stops.

The PM dedicated metro routes from Kasturchand Park to Automotive Square (Line-1) and Jhansi Rani Square to Prajapati Nagar (Line-2), to the people of Nagpur.

Until now, the metro has been operational between Khapri and Kasturchand Park on Line-1 and Lokmanya Nagar and Sitabuldi Interchange on Line-2.

The project has been implemented by the Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MAHA-METRO), which is a 50:50 jointly owned company of Government of India and Government of Maharashtra.

PM Flags-off Vande Bharat Train From Nagpur

Prime Minister Modi flagged off Vande Bharat Express connecting Nagpur and Bilaspur from platform number-1 of the Nagpur Railway Station.

With this, the travel time from Nagpur to Bilaspur will be reduced to 5 and half hours from 7 to 8 hours.

During the event, PM inspected the train coaches of the Vande Bharat Express, took stock of the onboard facilities, control centre of the locomotive engine and the development plans of the Nagpur and Ajni Railway Stations.

This will be the sixth Vande Bharat train to be introduced in the country and is an advanced version compared to the earlier ones, being much lighter and capable of reaching higher speeds in a shorter duration.

Vande Bharat 2.0 is equipped with more advancements and improved features such as reaching a speed of 0 to 100 kilometres per hour in just 52 seconds, and a maximum speed of up to 180 kilometres per hour.

The improved Vande Bharat Express will weigh 392 tons when compared to the previous version of 430 tons. It will also have a Wi-Fi content on-demand facility.