India's Longest Railway Service Inaugurated with the Introduction of Vivek Express

A weekly train christened "Vivek Express" from Dibrugarh in Assam to Kanyakumari (Tamilnadu) at the southern tip of India was inaugurated yesterday.

The train traverses the longest rail route in the country: 4286 Km. The train has 52 stops - and can be expected to have just as many until some politician or the other starts poking his nose in the matter ostensibly for the sake of "public convenience". It is the eighth longest rail route in the world.

The Vivek Express has 18 coaches as of now: six general (unreserved) second class coaches, seven second class sleeper coaches, one two-tier air-conditioned coach, two three-tier air-conditioned coaches, two SLR's, and one pantry car.

The fare by second class sleeper is an astonishingly low at Rs.673/- for the 4286 KM covered in82 hours 30 minutes. The AC 3-tier fare is Rs.1878/- and AC 2-Tier fare is Rs.2573/-.

The figures may be more telling when compared with airfares. The low-economy airfare (one-way) from Dibrugarh to Coimbatore (not Kanyakumari which is  farther from Coimbatore) is Rs.12,200 whereas a round trip form Dibrugarh to Coimbatore costs Rs.9500/-.

Paban Singh Ghatovar, Union Minister for the Development of North Eastern Region, flagged of the train on its southern course at Dibrugarh railway station. Prithibi Majhi, Revenue Minister (Assam) and Keshav Chandra, General Manager, North East Frontier Railway, were also present at the inaugural function.

However, the regular weekly service commences on 26th November 2011. The train would leave Dibrugarh at 11.45 PM every Saturday and reach Kanyakumari at 10.25 AM the following Wednesday.

Prior to Vivek Express, the Himsagar Express between Jammu Tawi and Kanyakumar was the longest railway route (3715 Km covered in 69 hours 30 minutes) in India. The  Dibrugarh Chennai Express route (3352 KM covered in 68 hr 30 minutes) was the next. Incidentally, the longest train route in the world is between Moscow and Vladivostok (9,259 Km in 178 hours).

Vivek Express is a boon to the South Indians - particularly the enterprising Tamilians and Malayalees - working in the North East and to the increasing number of North Eastern students and working personnel in the South. The train may well be expected to promote tourism too and bridge the cultural divide.

We hope there would be many more trains connecting the North East with the South (and other areas as well) so that there is an increased interaction between the North East and the rest of the country. We need that very badly - if total national integration were not to remain a distant dream.