The 22301/22302 Howrah–New Jalpaiguri ''Vande Bharat Express'' is India's 7th

Vande Bharat Express The Vande Bharat Express, previously known as Train 18, is a semi-high-speed, electric multiple unit train operated by Indian Railways. It was designed and manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai. The first train was manufactured in ...

train, connecting the capital of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

with

Siliguri Siliguri, ) is a major tier-II city in West Bengal. It forms twin cities, "Twin Cities" with the neighboring district capital of Jalpaiguri. The city spans areas of the Darjeeling district, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts in the Indian sta ...

, the largest city in northern West Bengal via

Shantiniketan Santiniketan is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, and later expanded by his son ...

Malda Town Malda or English Bazar is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the sixth largest city (urban agglomeration) in West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Malda district as well as of the Malda division of West Bengal. It consists o ...

Overview

This train is being operated by

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...

, connecting

and

, West Bengal's two most important cities. The train service officially started from 1 January 2023 on New Year's Day from Howrah. However the inaugural service ran on 30 December from Howrah. This is the first Vande Bharat train service in

Eastern India East India is a region of India consisting of the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal and also the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The region roughly corresponds to the historical region of Magadha fr ...

Rakes

It is the fifth 2nd Generation Vande Bharat Express train and was designed and manufactured by the

Integral Coach Factory Integral Coach Factory (ICF) is a manufacturer of ICF coach, rail coaches located in Perambur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It was established in 1955 and is owned and operated by the Indian Railways. It is located in Perambur, in the suburbs of ...

(ICF) under the leadership of ''Sudhanshu Mani'' at

Perambur Perambur is a neighbourhood located in the northern region of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Etymology In Tamil, ''pirambu (பிரம்பு)'' means bamboo and ''ur (ஊர்)'' means city or place. Before British rule, this place was wid ...

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

under the

Make in India Make in India is an initiative by the Government of India to create and encourage companies to develop, manufacture and assemble products made in India and incentivize dedicated investments into manufacturing. The policy approach was to creat ...

initiative. Howrah New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express train

Service

The 22301/22302 Howrah–New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express currently operates 6 days a week, covering a distance of (chargeable distance may be different) in a travel time of 07 hrs 30 mins with average speed of 75 km/h, making it the fastest passenger train in Howrah - New Jalpaiguri section.

Coach composition

The 22301/22302 Howrah–New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express currently has 14 AC Chair Car (highlighted in Aqua colour) and 2 Executive Chair Cars (highlighted in Pink colour) coaches.

Speed

is capable of reaching 160 km/h for commercial run and 180 km/h for trial but it does not touch 160 km/h speed over this route. Sometimes people become confused because according to Indian Railways Permanent Way Manual (IRPWM) on Indian Railways website or Indian Railway Institute of Civil Engineering website, the BG (Broad Gauge) lines have been classified into six groups ‘A’ to ‘E’ on the basis of the future maximum permissible speeds but it may not be same as the present speed. The maximum permissible speed of the train and route is 130 km/h between Howrah and Khana which is about 108 km part via Dankuni of Howrah - New Delhi rout

and speed is less in the rest part and the speed in rest part is same as maximum speed of the route which is 110 km/h over KAN-BDAG (Khana - Bonidanga

presently unknown but 100 km/h in 2011 between Bonidanga (after Gumani - GMAN) and Malda Town (MLD

45 km long part, 110 km/h between Malda Town and New Jalpaiguri which is a part of Guwahati – Malda Town route having 110 km/h sectional spee

which will be increased to 130 km/h between Malda Town and New Jalpaiguri by March 202

Schedule

The schedule of this 22301/22302 Howrah–New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express is given below:-

Incidents

Three days after the inauguration of Vande Bharat express bound towards Howrah Jn in Howrah–New Jalpaiguri line, Howrah-New Jalpaiguri route at 2 January 2023 at around 17:30, some unidentified persons pelted stones allegedly at

Kumarganj Kumarganj is a community development block that forms an administrative division in Balurghat subdivision of Dakshin Dinajpur district in the Indian state of West Bengal. History Dinajpur district was constituted in 1786. In 1947, the Radcliffe ...

in Malda near Bihar. No casualties were reported. After the brief inspection by police in Howrah, it was reported that the door glass of C13 coach was shattered.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express Vande Bharat Express trains Named passenger trains of India Higher-speed rail Express trains in India Transport in Jalpaiguri Transport in Howrah Rail transport in West Bengal Transport in Kolkata Rail transport in Howrah Trains from Howrah Junction railway station