• Recently, PM flagged off two Vande Bharat trains set to ply between Mumbai and the pilgrim towns of Shirdi and Solapur. For the first time, two Vande Bharat trains were inaugurated at one go.
• The two trains are Mumbai-Solapur Vande Bharat Train and Mumbai-Sainagar Shirdi Vande Bharat Train.
  • The Mumbai-Solapur Vande Bharat train is the 9th Vande Bharat train in the country, facilitating travel to important pilgrimage centres such as Siddheshwar in Solapur, Akkalkot, Tuljapur, Pandharpur near Solapur and Alandi near Pune.
  • Mumbai-Sainagar Shirdi Vande Bharat Train will be the 10th Vande Bharat train in the country.

About Vande Bharat Express – Indigenously built semi-high-speed train

• Vande Bharat is India’s first indigenous Semi High-Speed Train.
• The first ‘Vande Bharat Express’ train was flagged off by Shri Narendra Modi on the New Delhi – Kanpur – Allahabad – Varanasi- route in February 2019.
• The Vande Bharat Express, earlier known as Train 18, is an electric multiple-unit train designed and manufactured by the government-owned Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai.
• It can achieve high speeds due to faster acceleration and deceleration and also reduce journey time by 25% to 45%.