Vande Bharat Express likely to make southern debut on November 10

Representative Image: Vande Bharat Express, India's first semi-high speed train

The Vande Bharat Express is likely to make its southern debut on November 10, when its fifth edition will be launched between Chennai-Bengaluru and Mysuru, sources said on Friday. The distance it will cover will be around 483 km.

The Railways recently launched the third and the fourth Vande Bharat Express from poll-bound states of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Elections in Karnataka are likely to be held next year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday flagged off the inaugural run of the latest Vande Bharat Express train at Amb Andaura railway station in Himachal Pradesh's Una district.

The train will cut travel time between Una, Chandigarh and New Delhi and also comes equipped with advanced safety features.

Vande Bharat 2.0 trains come fitted with the Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) called KAVACH, which the previous trains did not have.

Coaches are equipped with disaster lights with a battery backup of three hours. The train's exterior has eight flatform-side cameras, up from four. There is also a passenger-guard communication facility in coaches, which comes with an automatic voice recording feature.