Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the first Vande Bharat Express train of Uttarakhand today via video conferencing. The express train to run between Delhi and Dehradun.

Uttarakhand has also completed the 100% electrification of railway tracks all across the state.

The hill state’s first semi high speed express train will run between Anand Vihar railway station in Delhi and Dehradun railway station.

In a special program in Dehradun railway station, PM Modi virtually inaugurated the express train in the presence of Uttarakhand Governor Lt. Gurmit Singh, state Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and others.

Prime Minister Modi addressing the event said Vande Bharat’s introduction to the state will help connecting Delhi to Devbhoomi Uttarakhand at a faster pace.

He added, the travel time between Delhi and Dehradun will also be reduced.

Vande Bharat will cover the 302 KM distance between Delhi to Dehradun in 4 hours 45 minutes reducing the earlier time by almost an hour.

As per the official website of the Ministry of Railways, the train will be operational for passenger from May 29.

Train number 22457 will be running all days except on Wednesdays.

The stoppages of Vande Bharat would be Meerut City, Muzzafarnagar, Saharanpur, Roorkee and Haridwar

Here’s the timings:

The train will depart from the Anand Vihar station at 17:50 and will reach Dehradun at 22:35.

Dehradun-Delhi Vande Bharat Express:

Departure from Dehradun – 7:00 am

Arrival at Haridwar Junction – 8:04 am

Arrival at Roorkee – 8:49 am

Arrival at Saharanpur – 9:27 am

Arrival at Muzaffarnagar – 10:07 am

Arrival at Meerut City – 10:37 am

Arrival at final destination Anand Vihar Terminal – 11:45 am

Ticket Fare:

The Vande Bharat express train would have eight coaches.

AC chair car- Rs 1,065

Executive chair car- Rs 1,890

In an unexpected turn of events, a scuffle broke out between rafters at a river rafting competition in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand when a group of rafters got engaged in a fight in the midst of holy river Ganga.

A video of the said incident is now going viral all over the internet.

In the viral video, people from two rafts can be seen fighting with each other, with a person hitting another person sitting in the raft by using a paddle.

More information on the the reason behind the fight still remains undisclosed.

The altercation broke out while rafting team were proceeding towards Muni Ki Reti from their starting point of rafting journey Shivpuri.

Reports claimed, a competition was ongoing between the rafters fighting in the video, purportedly some took the competition seriously and after a heated argument the scuffle broke out.

In the video it can also be seen, to escape the beating by the rafter using a paddle to beat, the members of the boat risking their life jumped off the board into the river.

Reportedly, three men jumped into the Ganga river.

Reports claimed, no official complaint on this matter has been registered yet but Muni Ki Reti Inspector Ritesh Shah spoke to the media and said, his team has already taken the cognizance of the event and termed it as a dangerous fighting.

Shah further added that the police is investigating the matter.

Rafting is an adventurous water sport, in which generally, 6 to 8 people sit on an inflatable raft (boat) with equal members on the either sides of the boat.

Each member holds a paddle in his/her hand and on the command of their rafting guide they do steering.

Rishikesh, a township in the Himalayan foothills beside the Ganga river, is best known for rafting in India, lakhs of tourists annually visit the place.

Clashes erupted between government job aspirants and the police in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun, Thursday, as protests demanding a CBI probe into an alleged paper leak in the state’s civil services recruitment exam continued.

According to reports, the protesters, who have been staging a sit-in protest in Dehradun over the past few days, clashed with the police and pelted stones at them. The police personnel responded by using batons to thrash the protesters and disperse them.

Videos of the incident that have surfaced online show the protesters being baton-charged by the cops to scatter them.

The job aspirants are demanding a CBI inquiry into alleged irregularities in recruitment by the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission (UKPSC). The state was mired in major controversy recently when a paper leak case came to light. The Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF) arrested several people who had reportedly appeared in the graduation-level examination on December 4 and 5, 2021, using the leaked paper.

The case sparked widespread allegations of irregularities in how the test was conducted, following which Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami called for an investigation and promised harsh punishment for those found guilty.

He said that the Uttarakhand government will soon introduce an “Anti-Copying Law” to curb cheating in recruitment exams conducted in the state for government jobs.

Under the new law, candidates found guilty in cheating during recruitment examinations will be handed a 10-year ban.