New Delhi-Katra Vande Bharat Express flagged off

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah flagged off the new Vande Bharat Express between New Delhi and Katra on Thursday, terming it a "Navratri gift" for Jammu & Kashmir. The train will begin its commercial run between New Delhi and Katra on October 5. Katra is the nearest railway station on the way to the Vaishno Devi temple.

"Travel for Vaishno Devi yatris will now become easier… Gandhiji inspired the entire world without giving any big and long speeches… his biggest message was swadeshi and today, we have a swadeshi railway being inaugurated," Shah said.

New Delhi-Katra Vande Bharat Express schedule

Vande Bharat Express, with train number 22439, will depart from New Delhi railway station at 6 am and reach Katra at 2 pm. On the way, the train halts at Ambala Cantt, Ludhiana and Jammu Tawi for two minutes each.

On the return journey (Katra-New Delhi), the train number will be 22440 and it will depart from Katra station at 3 pm to reach New Delhi at 11 pm. The train will run on all days of the week except Tuesday.

Travel time will be reduced to 8 hours

The high-speed train will bring down the travel time between Delhi and Katra to eight hours from the current 12 hours. There is no dynamic pricing on the train yet.

The fare for the train will be between Rs 1,630 and Rs 3,015. The luxury train is India's first high-speed train with 16 coaches. The engine-less self-propelled trainset allows for faster acceleration and deceleration, therefore reducing travel time by 40 percent.