Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the semi-high-speed Vande Bharat Express train between Kolkata and New Jalpaiguri during his visit to West Bengal on Dec 30.

The Vande Bharat will be run six days a week in the state. It will bring down travel time between Kolkata and Siliguri, the gateway to the Northeast considerably.

The train will leave the Howrah station at 5:55 am and reach New Jalpaiguri at 1.55 pm. After a one-hour stopover, it will leave the New Jalpaiguri station at 2.50 pm and reach Howrah at 10:50 pm. The Shatabdi Express takes around 8 hours and 20 minutes to complete the journey from Howrah to New Jalpaiguri.

The Vande Bharat Express on Monday completed its trial run Howrah to the New Jalpaiguri station successfully with 16 coaches, a day after arriving in the state from Chennai. The train has modern passenger-friendly facilities like automatic doors and Wi-Fi access.

The Prime Minister is also likely to inaugurate the newly built Kolkata Metro’s Joka-Taratala route during his visit on Friday. The inauguration will be held virtually.

Rupayan Mitra, Public Relations Officer (PRO), Kolkata Metro, told journalists,  “As of now, PM Modi will inaugurate the Joka-Taratala stretch on Friday. The inauguration will be held through video conferencing from the Howrah railway station.

PM Modi during his visit to Kolkata will also hold a meeting of the National Ganga Council which will be attended by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerji.

Prior to this he will pay floral tributes to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at the site of his in the city.