Indian Railways is celebrating the Golden Jubilee of it’s very first Rajdhani Express train. Kolkata Rajdhani Express started operations from Howrah to New Delhi on March 3, 1969. It was the first fully air-conditioned train introduced by Indian Railways.
Eastern Railways tweeted that greeting cards have been distributed to all passengers of the train. Apart from this, a commemorative postal stamp has also been released in regard to the occasion.
The train started off in 1969 with a maximum speed of 120 kilometres per hour. From November 1, 1971, it began to ply with an increased maximum speed of 130 kilometres per hour, cutting down the journey time to 7 hours and 20 minutes.
Initially, the train was equipped with 9 vacuum-braked coaches including 2 power cars, 5 AC chair cars, 1 AC dining car and 1 AC first class coach. At present, Kolkata Rajdhani Express comprises of 20 LHB coaches consisting of 2 AC first class, 5 AC 2-tier, 10 AC 3-tier, 1 pantry car and 2 power cars-cum-luggage vans.
