PM Modi set to flag off Mizoram's first Rajdhani train on Saturday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off Mizoram's first Rajdhani Express on Saturday, connecting the Sairang station in Aizawl with Delhi's Anand Vihar station, with weekly services starting on September 19, according to an official notification.

The train, providing direct connectivity between the national capital and Mizoram, will cover 2,510 km in 43 hours and 25 minutes at an average speed of 57.81 km per hour, the Northeast Frontier Railway's notification said.

The train's inaugural day schedule is different from its regular service. Its stoppages, number of coaches and other details will remain the same.

On the inauguration day of September 13, the 20-coach train will tentatively start at 10 am from the Sairang station -- 22 kms from Mizoram's capital Aizawl -- and arrive at the Anand Vihar rail station on Monday at 7:30 am.

"However, the regular services of this train, notified as train number 20597, will start from September 19, at 4:30 pm from Sairang.

"It will reach Anand Vihar at 10:50 am on September 21. On its return journey, it will run as train no 20598 from Anand Vihar at 7:50 in the evening on the same day (September 21) to arrive at Sairang at 3:15 PM on Tuesday (September 23)," an official said.

The train will stop at 21 stations, excluding Sairang and Anand Vihar. The prominent stoppages are Guwahati, New Cooch Behar, New Jalpaiguri, Malda Town, Bhagalpur, Patna, Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction and Kanpur.

"A diesel locomotive will be used from Bairabi to Guwahati because the new line from Bairabi to Sairang is yet to be electrified. An electric locomotive will replace the diesel one at Guwahati, and it will pull the train up to Anand Vihar," a railway official said.

Besides the Sairang-Anand Vihar Weekly Rajdhan Express, Prime Minister Modi will also flag off two more trains -- a daily express train between Sairang-Guwahati and a tri-weekly train between Sairang and Kolkata.

"Bairabi, a border town of Mizoram, earlier had a meter gauge line which was converted to broad gauge in 2016. This line, which has been extended back to Sairang, will be inaugurated by PM Modi with the launch of these trains," another railway official said.

First conceptualised in September 1999, the Bairabi-Sairang line, once inaugurated, will bring Mizoram's capital Aizawl on the country's railway map. The project has overcome unprecedented challenges in terms of alignment, short working seasons and frequent landslides.