The trial run of Patna-Ranchi Vande Bharat Express will take place on June 12, a Railway official said on Saturday. The trial run was earlier scheduled on June 11. It was, however, rescheduled to June 12 in the wake of a two-day bandh call given by a students' body in Jharkhand, said Birendra Kumar, Chief Public Relation Officer (CPRO) of East Central Railway (ECR) in Hajipur zone.
Divisional Railway Manager of the Dhanbad division of ECR, Kamal Kishore Sinha, said all preparations have been made for the trial run. Multiple trial runs would be conducted before the final run of the train between Patna and Ranchi, he said.
Vande Bharat Express will pass through hills and four tunnels between Sidhwar (Ramgarh) and Sanki (Ranchi), which is part of the 202-km-long new rail route between Koderma and Ranchi via Barkakana.
The 27-km stretch between Sidhwar and Sanki passes through difficult terrain and four tunnels, the longest of which is 1.7-km-long, while three others are around 600 metres each, another railway official said. He said passenger services on this stretch will start with the Vande Bharat Express, and till now, only goods trains were plying.
The commissioner of railway safety (CRS) in Kolkata had conducted a safety inspection and speed trial on the 27-km stretch between Sidhwar and Sanki and given the nod for operationalizing the new route between Koderma and Ranchi via Barkakana in December last year.
The train will leave Patna at 6.55 AM and will reach Gaya Junction at 8.20 AM and will reach Ranchi at 1 PM. In return journey it will leave Ranchi Junction at 2.20 PM and will reach Gaya Junction at 7 PM and will reach Patna Junction at 8. 25 PM. The Railway has issued directives for trail run stating that as this is high speed train it will move at high speed. The Railway has issued direction to keep distance from the track.
The Vande Bharat Express is a short-distance train service operated by Indian Railways. Similar to Shatabdi Express, these are day train services that connect major Indian cities which are in a distance of less than a day's time.