Madhya Pradesh’s Neemuch would soon get a Vande Bharat Express train, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently said. As per a report on ANI, Railway Minister said this while addressing the public at Neemuch on Monday. The minister said that the request to start the semi-high speed train on the route was placed by Member of Parliament (MP) Sudhir Gupta. “It is time for Vande Bharat to run on this route. Your Member of Parliament (MP) Sudhir Gupta has already requested for the same. Vande Bharat Express will run on your route soon.”

It’s likely that the Neemuch stop will be added on the upcoming Udaipur-Indore Vande Bharat Express route. Neemuch borders the state of Rajasthan and can be part of the Udaipur Vande Bharat Express. Udaipur, a popular tourist destination in Rajasthan will soon get two Vande Bharat Express trains, one connecting Indore and one Jaipur. Madhya Pradesh already has multiple Vande Bharat Express trains, including the New Delhi-Bhopal Vande Bharat Express and Indore-Bhopal Vande Bharat Express. 

The leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Assembly and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, on Monday, thanked Ashwini Vaishnaw for considering his request to provide stoppage of trains at particular stations in the state. Taking to X, he wrote, “I would like to thank Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav for considering the requests made by the BJP Bengal MPs and MLAs on different occasions and providing stoppages for the Trains.”

Earlier last month, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan made his first Vande Bharat Express train journey, travelling from Kannur to Ernakulam. The Chief Minister travelled in the executive coach of the train which departed Kannur.

In July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off two new and upgraded versions of Vande Bharat Express trains– Gorakhpur-Lucknow and Jodhpur-Sabarmati–at Gorakhpur Station in Uttar Pradesh, taking the total operational service across the country to a significant milestone of 50. With 50 operational services, the Vande Bharat Express has revolutionized rail travel, providing state-of-the-art amenities and reducing travel time for passengers.

The project to manufacture indigenous semi-high-speed train sets began in mid-2017, and within 18 months, the ICF Chennai completed Train-18. India’s first semi-high-speed train was renamed Vande Bharat Express in January 2019 to emphasize its made-in-India status. The train achieved a maximum speed of 180 kmph on the Kota-Sawai Madhopur section.