Authorities of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) on Sunday conducted a trial run of the Vande Bharat Express that will connect New Jalpaiguri with Assam's Guwahati.

Sources said the train, which happens to be the 17th Vande Bharat in the country and third in Bengal, is likely to be flagged off on May 25.

“The train will cover a distance of 411 kilometres in five hours and fifty minutes, with an average speed of 70.46 kilometres per hour. In due course, the speed of the train will be increased,” said a source in the NFR.

In northeast India, it will be the first semi-high-speed train.

In New Jalpaiguri, the largest railway station in north Bengal and the second most important station in the northeast after Guwahati, this will be the second Vande Bharat. The other one already runs between Howrah and NJP.

According to railway officials, between NJP and Guwahati, the train will have halts in New Alipurduar, Kokrajhar, New Bongaigaon and Kamakhya.

“From NJP, the train will depart at 5.50am to reach Guwahati at noon. While returning, it will leave Guwahati at 4.30pm and arrive in NJP at 10.20pm,” said a source.

The train service will be available six days a week, except Tuesday. Its maintenance work would be carried out in NJP for which necessary infrastructure has been readied.

Residents of the region have welcomed the railway’s decision to introduce the semi-high-speed train service on the route.

Every day, hundreds of people travel to Siliguri from the northeast on various errands.

“Also, there is a steady flow of tourists from the northeast to this region and vice versa. Many people from here go to Assam for a trip to the famous Kamakhya temple and to other places. The train service would surely benefit a considerable number of passengers,” said Debasish Maitra, the president of the Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators’ Association.

Siliguri-based Prithviraj Dasgupta, associated with the pharmaceutical industry, said the new train would help professionals like him to go on quick work trips to Alipurduar, Cooch Behar and also lower Assam. “One can reach these places in the morning and take a return trip home the same day,” he said.