Railway Minister Piyush Goyal in a letter addressed to Babul Supriyo, Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises recently, stated that the Rajdhani Express train service, which runs between Howrah in Kolkata and the national capital, New Delhi will now halt at Asansol railway station in West Bengal. The Railway Minister in his letter stated that the move has been taken in deference to Babul Suprio’s request to stop the superfast Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express train at West Bengal’s Asansol railway station. The request by minister Babul Supriyo dates back to 2016 when he drafted a letter to the former Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhu on 03-11-2016 requesting him to stop train number 12301/12302 Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express train service at Asansol railway station in West Bengal.
After receiving the letter from Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Babul Supriyo who belongs to the Asansol constituency thanked the Railway Minister in a tweet. He addressed his tweet to the people in Asansol, saying that he was extremely happy to tell them that the 12301/12302 Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express train service will now stop at the Asansol railway station. Further to this, he also offered his heartfelt gratitude to the Railway Minister for honoring his request. In his tweet, Supriyo also attached an image of the confirmation letter.
At present, the train number 12301/12302 Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express train service travels via Gaya and halts at seven railway stations in between namely Howrah Junction, Dhanbad Junction, Parasnath, Gaya Junction, Mughal Sarai Junction, Allahabad Junction, Kanpur Central and New Delhi. By running at an average speed of 83 km per hour, the 12301 Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express train departs at 7:00 PM from Asansol Junction and reaches New Delhi at 10:00 AM in the morning. On the return journey, by running at an average speed of 86 km per hour, train number 12302 Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express departs at 4:55 PM from New Delhi and reaches Howrah Junction at 9:50 AM in the morning.
