Mumbai-Goa Vande Bharat Express likely to run from June 3

A Vande Bharat Express train arrives at CSMT on Thursday. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

India's 19th, Maharashtra's fifth and Mumbai's fourth Vande Bharat Express train will run between Goa and Mumbai, most probably from June 3. The train services will be available to the public a day after the formal inauguration.

The Integral Coach Factory has already dispatched an eight-car train to Madgaon. Officials said that the train would take about eight hours, 45 minutes less than Tejas Express on the same route, presently the fastest train in Konkan Railway. It will be an eight-coach train and will be modified later if required as per demand.

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During the trial run two weeks ago, the train departed from platform number 7 of CSMT in Mumbai at 5:30 am and reached Madgaon station in Goa at 12.50 pm. While the timetable is being finalised, it will have limited halts to maintain timings and speed.

The other Vande Bharat Express trains from Maharashtra and Mumbai are Mumbai-Gandhinagar, Mumbai-Solapur, Mumbai-Sainagar Shirdi, and Nagpur-Bilaspur. Maharashtra got the first Vande Bharat train on September 30, 2022, that travels between Mumbai and Gandhinagar.

On February 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Vande Bharat Express trains from Mumbai to Solapur and Mumbai to Sainagar Shirdi, becoming the first series of trains to climb both the steepest Ghat sections with a gradient of 1:37 without any banking locomotives.