Dikhyaa Mohanty 
The government of Odisha has requested that at least three routes inside the state be used by Vande Bharat Express trains. One of the five states that have not yet been connected by a semi-high-speed train is Odisha. Tukuni Sahu, the minister of commerce and transportation, has requested Ashwini Vaishnaw, the minister of railways, to establish Vande Bharat Express trains between Puri and Howrah, Puri and Rourkela, and Bhubaneswar and Hyderabad.
She said that as Odisha has had tremendous economic expansion over the past two decades and has received the most investment in recent years, the Vande Bharat service is essential for enhancing passenger comfort and providing speedier travel alternatives for both businesspeople and tourists. While the proposed Puri-Howrah Vande Bharat Express train will provide faster travel options for passengers from West Bengal and Odisha, the Puri-Rourkela service connecting Sambalpur will enable faster passenger movement from western Odisha districts to the state capital.
A limited number of express trains run between western Odisha and the state capital. Due to the lengthy wait for trains, people are compelled to rely on private bus services.”A Vande Bharat linking Rourkela will not only lighten the weight on the passengers, but will also offer a speedier mode of transportation. According to Sahu, it will increase intra-state economic activity and link the airports in Jharsuguda, Rourkela, and Bhubaneswar. The minister also asked for a second Vande Bharat Express train to run between Bhubaneswar and Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana, in order to speed up travel between the two cities because many residents of Odisha work and live there.
Sahu urged the minister of the Union to give priority consideration to the state’s legitimate claims. In the meantime, on Friday, Indian Railways ran the state’s inaugural Vande Bharat Express between Howrah and Puri as a test run. The train left the Howrah station at 6:10 am and arrived in Bhubaneswar and Puri at 11:22 am and 12:35 pm, respectively. At Kharagpur, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur-Keonjhar Road, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, and Khurda Road, it stopped for two minutes each.
