Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has flagged of India first ‘private’ train, the IRCTC Tejas Express between Lucknow and Delhi.
The new luxury train offering for business travellers and tourists and its launch during Navratras and the festive season is a gift for passengers. For the first time full working and ticketing control of a train is with IRCTC. Train number 82501/82502 will ply between the New Delhi Railway station (NDLS)-Lucknow NE (LJN) route for six days a week. While Train number 82501 Lucknow-New Delhi Tejas Express will complete the journey in 6 hours and 15 minutes, Train number 82502 New Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express will take 6 hours and 30 minutes.
The success of this new experiment by Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways will make way for private operators to run trains in India. The Railway Board has already asked zonal railways to consider the feasibility of running private trains on 50 key routes including Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah.
Tejas Express is a more premium version of the Shatabdi Express group of air-conditioned chair cars. There are several unique features of this new IRCTC Tejas Express train. In a first, passengers will be paid for any delay on an hourly basis. A whopping Rs 25 lakh free insurance will be provided for each passenger.