Jamnagar: Indian Railways is mulling extension of Jamnagar – Ahmedabad Vande Bharat Express train to Surat via Vadodara in attempt to achieve full occupancy on board.

Jamnagar – Ahmedabad Vande Bharat Express train was launched in September this year. It significantly cuts the travel time between two cities and also offers fast and luxurious connectivity to Sanand, Surendranagar, Wankaner and Rajkot on route. However on regular basis it is not achieving 100 percent occupancy. The main and high-spending traffic from Ahmedabad to Jamnagar route is towards a leading pilgrim place Dwarka which is not connected through this train. On the reverse direction, from Jamnagar to Ahmedabad side, the occupancy can be perhaps improved if the train also connect Vadodara and Surat. It is now learnt that the train would be extended to Surat, covering Vadodara also on the route.

A trial on proposed extension route was carried out between Ahmedabad and Surat on 9 November. The train left Surat at 3.35 pm and reached Ahmedabad after 2.35 hours at 130 km speed crossing 229 km distance. The train once launched on extended route, shall be known as Jamnagar-Surat Vande Bharat Express train instead of Jamnagar – Ahmedabad. Formal announcement on this by Railways is expected in couple of months if eventual decision comes in favor of extension of route.

The population of Jamnagar city is over 6 lakh. Rajkot on route has over 13 lakh population. The new cities to be added on extended route, Vadodara has over 17.50 lakh population while Surat, the second largest city of Gujarat has over 45 lakh population as per the census 2011. DeshGujarat