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| - Fact Check: Is this Vande Bharat launch schedule real? No, says Indian Railways
India Today Fact Check found that this Vande Bharat launch schedule is misleading. The Indian Railways did not announce any Vande Bharat Express that is scheduled to be inaugurated on February 18.
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India Today Fact Check
This information is misleading. Some of these routes are in the works but there’s no news of a February 18 launch as of yet.
Many people on social media shared a list of train routes and claimed that a series of new Vande Bharat trains will be inaugurated on February 18. These routes include Kolhapur-Mumbai, Patna-Lucknow via Varanasi, Dehradun-Lucknow, Howrah-Varanasi, Indore-Jaipur, and Pune-Secunderabad.
Some websites also shared a picture of a detailed route chart between Howrah and Varanasi.
India Today Fact Check found that this schedule is faulty. The Indian Railways has not announced any Vande Bharat Express which is scheduled to be inaugurated on February 18.
OUR PROBE
Howrah Railway station comes under the Howrah Division, which is the oldest Division of the Eastern Railway. We checked the social media accounts of the Eastern Railway to find if there was any truth to the viral claims. On the official X account, we found a February 9 post that declared the route chart for the alleged Howrah-Varanasi Vande Bharat Express fake. Currently, there are a total of four Vande Bharat trains running from or to West Bengal.
In January 2024, Maharashtra State Railways Minister Raosaheb Danve stated that a Vande Bharat Express service will start soon from Kolhapur to Mumbai but did not mention any specific date. Also, there is a proposal to start Vande Bharat between Patna to Lucknow. However, it is yet to be finalised.
Currently, there is only a single Vande Bharat running from Uttarakhand’s Dehradun that goes to the Delhi Anand Vihar station. A Dehradun-Lucknow Vande Bharat is in the works right now.
Upon checking the rest of the routes of Indore to Jaipur and Pune to Secunderabad, we found no current Vande Bharat routes between these respective cities. As per reports, however, these projects are also underway.
Thus, it is more than clear that the viral claim is misleading.
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