Uttar Pradesh ﷺChief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday flagged off the Tejas Express, the country’s first "private" train run by its subsidiary𝕴 IRCTC, between Lucknow and New Delhi.
"It is the first corporate train of the country. I congratulate the first batch of passengers travelling in it and hope such initiatives are taken to connect other cities ✱as well," Adityanath said.
The Chief Minister also pitched for a “semജi-bullet train” on the Agra-Varanasi route also promising that if the railways take this project up, the state government will bear the cost of the land.
"We are constructing an expressway between Agra, Lucknow and Varanasi. Half of the wo🦄rk is over and the project will be completed next year,” he said, suggesting that a semi-high speed train could also be run on this route.
“If the railway board takes any ಌinitiative on this, the state will bear the cost on the Agra-Varanasi route,” he said.
He said suchꦕ initiatives can also be taken on other route🥂s, including Lucknow-Allahabad and Lucknow-Gorakhpur.
"I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Railway Minister Piyush Goel for giving the first corporate train fro🌠m the biggest state tཧo Delhi,” he said.
The co🎃mmercial run of the new Tejas Express starts on Saturday. It will run on all days🐟 of the week, except Tuesday. It will have only two halts — Kanpur and Ghaziabad.
The train cuts the time travelled between the two cities to six hours 15 minutes from the six hours 40 minutes taken by the Swarna Shatabdi, currently the🌟 fastest train on the route.
If this experiment of handing over certain operations to IRCTC is successful, the railways will make way for private operators 💟to run trains in India, officials said.
The Tejas Express is a premium version of the Shatabdi Express category of air-conditioned chair-car trains, with tickets being priced at Rs 1,280 for AC chair ܫcar passengers and Rs 2,450🌺 for executive chair car. However, due to dynamic pricing, the costliest Tejas ticket till now is Rs 4,325.
Commenting on the astronomical price of the tickets Adityanath said when mobile phones were first introduced, the charges were astrono൩mical but now every person has it, he said.
";ღThis happened due to healꩵthy competition. We need that to provide better facilities to people," he added.
“This is a competitive era and there is a need for environment-friendly public transportꦯ to be accepted i♛n society," Adityanath said.
The new IRCTC Tejas Express train has ಞseveral new features.
In a first, passengers will be paid for any delay on an hourly basis. Also, each passenger will g⛦et free Rs 25 lakh insurance.
The Tejas Express will leave Lucknow at 6.10 am and reach New Delhi rai💮lway station at 12.25 pm. On its return journey, the train will leave Delhi at 3.35 pm and reach Lucknow at 10.05 pm.
