Railway Minister Flags Off New Shatabdi Express Between New Delhi and Bhatinda

The Minister for Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu flagged off the new Shatabdi Express train between New Delhi and Bhatinda at a ceremony held at New Delhi Railway station today. Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Hon'ble Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, Smt Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Hon'ble Minister for Food Processing Industries, Govt. of India, Shri Manoj Sinha, Hon'ble Minister of State for Railways, Govt. of India, Smt. Meenakshi Lekhi, Hon'ble Member of Parliament(Lok Sabha), Shri Sher Singh Ghubaya, Hon'ble Member of Parliament(Lok Sabha)Shri Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Hon'ble Member of Parliament(Rajya Sabha),  were the Guests of Honour on the occasion.  The top executives from the Railway present on the occasion include- Sh. Arunendra Kumar, Chairman Railway Board, Member Engineering, Railway Board Shri V.KGupta, General Manager, Northern Railway, Shri Pradeep Kumar, Divisional Railway Manager, Northern Railway, Delhi, Shri A. K. Sachan & Senior Railway Officials.  

 Following the inaugural run, regular services of the 12047/12048 New Delhi-Bhatinda-New Delhi Shatabdi Express will commence from 20.12.2014 as per the following programme:-
 

12047 New Delhi-Bhatinda		Station	12048 Bhatinda-New Delhi
Arr	Dep		Arr	Dep
-	0900	New Delhi	2110	-
1016	1018	Rohtak	1940	1942
1114	1116	Jind	1838	1840
1216	1218	Jakhal	1737	1740
1244	1246	Mansa	1658	1700
1345	-	Bathinda	-	1620

  
Having one executive chair car and seven air-conditioned chair car coaches, this Shatabdi Express will run on every on Monday and Saturday in both directions.

 There are presently 14 pairs of Shatabdi services on Northern Railway serving 11 important cities viz. - Bhopal, Lucknow, Ajmer, Dehradun, Amritsar( 2 pairs), Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Moga, Kathgodam, Kanpur and Kalka( 2 pairs). The Bhatinda-New Delhi Shatabdi is the 15^th Shatabdi Express to run on the zone. The running of this train is an important value-addition to the fleet of passenger services in this area.

 It is envisaged that the Railways' role in bringing enhanced inter-city connectivity and thereby greater mobility through the new Shatabdi services between New Delhi-Bhatinda would mark another turning point to the hinterland of Punjab and to the developing cities in the vicinity.
 
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