Railways to introduce 6 new Duronto trains

The Indian Railways will run six new Duronto trains providing non-stop point-to-point services between major cities.

This was announced by Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee while presenting the Railway Budget for 2010-11 in Parliament.

The new Duronto trains are:

1. Yeshwantpur (Bangalore) – Delhi (AC) (Weekly), 2. Mumbai-Secunderabad AC (Bi-weekly), 3. Pune-Howrah AC (Bi-weekly), 4. Mumbai-Ernakulam AC (Bi-weekly), 5. Indore-Mumbai AC (Bi-weekly) and 6. Jaipur-Mumbai AC (Bi-weekly).

In addition, following Durontos will run in the daytime:

1. Chandigarh-Amritsar, 2. Chennai-Coimbatore, 3. Puri-Howrah and 4. Howrah-Digha.

Ms Banerjee said the Railways would also run special trains, named "Janmabhoomi" between Ahmedabad and Udhampur every week as a mark of respect to the contribution of the Armed Forces in defending the borders of the country.

The train will link Ahmedabad, Jodhpur, Phalodi, Lalgarh, Biradhwal, Pilibanga, Mahajan, Suratgarh, Hanumangarh, Bhatinda, Faridkot, Firozpur, Jalandher, Chakki bank, Samba, Bari Brahman, Jammu-Tawi and Udhampur.

For the benefit of the common man, the Railways run the following unreserved trains under the banner of "Karmabhoomi Special": 1. Darbhanga-Mumbai Express (Weekly), 2. Guwahati-Mumbai (Weekly) via Howrah-Tatanagar-Jharsuguda-Bilaspur-Nagpur and 3. New Jallpaiguri-Amritsar (Weekly) via Katihar - Sitapur.

Ms Banerjee announced special trains called "Matribhoomi Special" for women. There will be 21 such trains and will run in the cities of Kolkata, Chennai, New Delhi and Mumbai.

In addition, the following Matribhoomi specials will be run in the suburban sections of the major cities:

1. Delhi – Panipat

2. Kolkata: a. Barasat – Sealdah b. Krishnanagar – Sealdah 3. Falaknuma – Lingampalli

4. Mumbai: a. Thane – Vashi b. Panvel – Nerul - Thane

As part of the efforts to promote tourism, the Railways will launch special tourist trains called "Bharat Tirth" connecting popular tourist sites in different parts of the country.

The Bharat Tirth Trains are proposed to be run on the following routes covering places of tourist importance, the detailed itineraries of which will be advertised from time to time:-

i) Howrah-Gaya-Agra-Mathura-Vrindavan-New Delhi-Haridwar-Varanasi-Howrah

ii) Howrah-Chennai-Puducherry-Madurai-Rameshwaram-Kanyakumari-Bangalore-Mysore-Chennai-Howrah

iii) Howrh-Vizag-Hyderabad-Araku-Howrah

iv) Howrah – Varanasi - Jammu Tawi-Amritsar-Haridwar-Mathura-Vrindavan-Allahabad-Howrah

v) Howrah-Ajmer-Udaipur-Jodhpur-Bikaner-Jaipur-Howrah

vi) Mumbai-Pune-Tirupati-Kancheepuram-Rameshwaram-Madurai-Kanyakumari-Pune-Mumbai

vii) Pune-Jaipur-Nathdwara-Ranakpur-Jaipur-Mathura-Agra-Haridwar-Amritsar-Jammu Tawi-Pune

viii) Pune-Ratnagiri-Goa-Bangalore-Mysore-Tirupati-Pune

ix) Ahmedabad-Puri-Kolkata-Gangasagar-Varanasi-Allahabad-Indore-Omkareshwar-Ujjain-Ahmedabad

x) Bhopal-Dwarka-Somnath-Udaipur-Ajmer-Jodhpur-Jaipur-Mathura-Vrindavan-Amritsar-Jammu Tawi-Bhopal

xi) Bhopal-Tirupati-Kanchipuram-Rameshwaram-Madurai-Kanyakumari-Trivandrum-Cochin-Bhopal

xii) Madurai-Chennai-Kopargaon-Mantralayam-Chennai-Madurai

xiii) Madurai-Erode-Pune-Ujjain-Veraval-Nasik-Hyderabad-Chennai-Madurai

xiv) Madurai-Chennai-Jaipur-Delhi-Mathura-Vrindavan-Allahabad-Varanasi-Gaya-Chennai-Madurai

xv) Madurai – Varanasi – Gaya – Patna Sahib-Allahabad-Haridwar-Chandigarh-Kurukshetra-Amritsar-Delhi-Madurai

xvi) Madurai-Mysore-Goa-Mumbai-Aurangabad-Hyderabad-Madurai

Ms Banerjee also announced the introduction of 46 short distance trains in different parts of the country.

The following 28 passenger trains are proposed to be introduced during the year 2010-11:

The following nine MEMUs are being introduced: Tirupati-Nellore-Chennai, Salem-Katpadi, Vijaywada-Guntur-Tenali, Coimbatore-Erode, Howrah-Midnapur, Dhanbad-Jhargram via Purulia, Ghatsila-Howrah, Ernakulam-Kollam, and restoration of Andal-Jasidih via Jamuria-Barbani.

The Railway Minister said that on gauge conversion of the Aluabari-Siliguri section, a ring-rail type service between Aluabari, Siliguri and New Jalpaiguri would be introduced. The other DEMU Services proposed to be introduced are: Kacheguda-Mahboobnagar, Kacheguda-Miryalguda, Qazigund-Baramulla, Krishnanagar-Farakka, Malda Town-Coochbehar, Malda Town – Balurghat, Bakhtiyarpur-Gaya and Hoshiarpur – Amritsar.

NNN