Tejas Express to roll out on Mumbai-Goa Route
The Mumbai-Goa route has been chosen for the railways’ premium Tejas brand of trains. On Thursday, Central Railway announced that the CST-Karmali Tejas will ply on five days, with no service on Monday and Thursday. The train will leave CST at 12:20 am and reach Karmali at 11 am the same day. On the return leg, the Tejas train will leave Karmali at 12:20 pm and reach CST at 10:45 pm. It will halt at Thane, Panvel, Chiplun, Ratnagiri, Kudal and Thivim in both directions, said officials. This distance is covered in 10 hours and 40 minutes. This is 30 – 90 minutes faster than the other trains plying on this route. Though the train has been included in the western zone timetable of Indian Railways that will be effective from Saturday, the date from when it will be operational will be declared later.
Railway sources are hopeful that this train will reduce some load on Konkan Kanya express, which is one of the most popular trains on this route.
The train is aimed at providing world-class facilities to all sections of passengers. The coaches on the train boast of Automatic doors, high-tech entertainment units, Wi-Fi facilities, and integrated braille displays, giving passengers a world-class travel experience. Besides the improved aesthetics, there will be phone sockets, adjustable reading lights, water level indicators in bio-vacuum toilets, taps with sensors, and hand driers. Tejas coaches will also have GPS-based passenger information display system, electronic passenger reservation charts, tea and coffee vending machines, magazines and snack tables. There will be CCTV, and fire and smoke detection and suppression systems. Ergonomic seating with improved cushioning and upholstery along with Dust sealed gangways, fire and smoke detection system, and passenger announcement system are some of the other features.
The other sectors identified by the railways to run Tejas Express are Delhi-Agra, Delhi-Chandigarh, Delhi-Kanpur, Nagpur-Bilaspur, Mysuru-Bengaluru-Chennai, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Chennai-Hyderabad and Nagpur-Secunderabad.
