Jan Shatabdi set to chug out today - Nitish to flag off Patna-Ranchi train

Ranchi, Jan. 7: The much-awaited Patna-Ranchi Jan Shatabdi Express will finally chug out tomorrow.

The East-Central Railway has organised the flag-off of the new train — the third on the route — from Patna station. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will do the honours. “The new train will be flagged off by Nitish Kumar at 3pm. On the first day, it will ply as a special train to Ranchi,” said Dilip Kumar, the chief public relations officer of East Central Railway.

Kumar added that from January 9, the express would run as a regular train.

Till now, the Ranchi-Patna route had only two trains — Hatia-Patna Express and Hatia-Patna Super. While the Hatia-Patna Express plies in the night, the Hatia-Patna Super runs during the day, departing at 6.15am from Hatia. But the new train has a different timetable and is expected to draw a large number of passengers.

Boasting 11 coaches — eight chair car coaches, one AC chair car coach and two SLR coaches to carry goods — the train will depart from Patna junction, at 6.15am and reach Gaya at 8.25am. Thereafter, it would take off for Koderma at 9.44am, will reach Gomoh at 10.43am, Bokaro at 11.35am, Muri at 12.28am and finally, Ranchi at 1.55pm.

It will start its return journey from Ranchi station at 2.30pm and chug into Patna at 10.15pm after stopovers in Muri, Bokaro, Gomoh, Koderma and Gaya.

Although there is no pantry car, passengers will not have to worry about food. The authorities will pick up food from base kitchens at Patna and Ranchi during the journey. In the absence of adequate number of trains on the route, Hatia-Patna Express and Hatia-Patna Super used to witness rush round the year.