India's first semi-high speed train was flagged off by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday.
The train has been named as Gatiman Express and will run between Hazrat Nizammuddin and Agra Cantonment. The state-of-the-art train will take one hour and forty minutes to complete the journey.
Here is all you need to know about Gatiman Express
♦ Passengers of Gatiman Express will not only be ushered to their seats by train hostesses and offered roses but will also be given free access to multimedia content.
♦ Aiming at attracting tourists visiting the City of Taj, The 12050 Nizamuddin-Agra-Nizamuddin Gatiman Express will run at a maximum speed of 160 km per hour covering the 200 km long distance in 100 minutes.
♦ Hotspot devices have been installed at coaches to access multimedia services by passengers free of cost directly on their smartphones, tablets or laptops.
♦ The service will give users access to a wide variety of multimedia content such as movies, videos, TV serials, film documentaries, video songs, news, sports videos, cartoons and devotional songs.
♦ Passengers will have to download an app and access the service free of cost while the service providers will show some advertisements for limited duration, he said.
♦ Fare will be 25% cent higher than Shatabdi Express, catering services in Gatiman Express will also be better.
♦ Both Indian and continental cuisine will be served. Passengers will be treated to wholewheat upma, mini dosa, Kanjeevaram idli, fresh cut fruits, aloo kulcha, swiss roll, roasted dry fruits and chicken roll. Chicken sausages with Spanish egg white omelette and date walnut slice cakes will also be served in Bone China.
♦ The train will run six days a week except on Fridays in both the directions.
♦ According to the schedule, the train will start its journey from Nizamuddin at 8.10 AM to reach Agra at 9.50 AM. In the return, the Gatiman Express will depart from Agra at 5.50 PM to reach Nizamuddin at 7.30 PM.
♦ The train will have a high-power emergency braking system, automatic fire alarm, GPS-based passenger information system and sliding doors in the coaches.
♦ The fare for chair car in fully air conditioned Gatiman Express has been fixed at Rs 690, while for Executive Class it will be Rs 1,365.
Railways plans to roll out such trains on nine more routes including Kanpur-Delhi, Chandigarh-Delhi, Hyderabad-Chennai, Nagpur-Bilaspur, Goa-Mumbai and Nagpur-Secunderabad. Kanpur-Delhi, Chandigarh-Delhi, Hyderabad-Chennai, Nagpur-Bilaspur, Goa-Mumbai and Nagpur-Secunderabad.
(With PTI inputs)
