The Goa-Mumbai Vande Bharat Express will be inaugurated on June 3. The train will be flagged off from Madgaon Junction. The train will leave from Mumbai (CSMT) in the morning. It will leave Madgaon in the afternoon and reach CSMT before midnight the same day. Vande Bharat train will be inaugurated on 3rd June but the train will run for the people from 4th June. The eight-coach train will have 11 stops and will take less than eight hours to cover the distance of 586 km.
The semi-high-speed Vande will reduce the travel time between Mumbai and Goa to less than an hour. Currently the fastest train on this route is Tejas Express. Tejas takes 8 hours 50 minutes to cover the same distance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually flag off the Goa-Mumbai train from New Delhi. While Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav and Chief Minister of Goa will be present in Madgaon.
Tejas will leave CSMT at 5.50 am and reach Madgaon at 2.40 pm. This time thousands of passengers will also get the benefit of the Mumbai-Goa Vande Bharat train on Ganeshotsav. A large number of pilgrims visit Konkan once a year to welcome Bappa. The fare for Mumbai-Margaon chair car is Rs 1,745 and for EC (executive chair car) is Rs 3,290. This includes IRCTC food charges.
Tejas Express operates on the Mumbai-Margaon route. The fare for the full journey of Tejas is Rs 1055 for chair car, Rs 3080 for EC. Tejas Express stops at Panvel, Chiplun, Ratnagiri, Kudal stations. With this, the option of Vande Bharat along with Tejas will also be available for fast train travel for Konkanis. The fare between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Madgaon Superfast Mail-Express is ₹ 1,620 for 2nd AC and ₹ 1,150 for 3rd AC. The fare for the Volvo bus is Rs 1,300. The airfare ranges from 3,000 to 6,000.
