Fagging off the Vande Bharat Express trains via video conferencing he assured the people that the “day is not far when Vande Bharat will connect every part of the country”.
New Delhi/Udaipur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, Sept 24, said the speed and scale of infrastructure development matched the aspirations of 140 crore Indians as he flagged off nine Vande Bharat Express trains connecting religious and tourist destinations across 11 states, a PTI report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says.
“Indian Railways is the most trusted co-passenger of India’s poor and middle-class people. The number of people who travel in the railways in one day is more than the population of many countries,” he said.
Flagging off the Vande Bharat Express trains via video conferencing, Modi also slammed the previous governments for not paying adequate attention towards modernisation of railways.
He said these nine new trains were in addition to the 25 Vande Bharat Express trains were already functional in the country.
He assured the people that the “day is not far when Vande Bharat will connect every part of the country”.
Governors, chief ministers, Union ministers and elected representatives were present at the nine railway stations from where the indigenously built semi-high speed trains were flagged off.
Union minister Kailash Choudhary and Rajasthan BJP president CP Joshi boarded the Vande Bharat Express train at Udaipur and travelled up to Chhittorgarh where BJP workers raised slogans of “Vande Mataram” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai” as the train chugged into the station.
The nine trains will provide faster connectivity across 11 states — Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha, Jharkhand and Gujarat.
In his address, the prime minister said the popularity of Vande Bharat trains was growing and more than 1.11 crore passengers have already travelled in them.
“This speed and scale of infrastructure development in the country is exactly matching the aspirations of 140 crore Indians,” Modi said.
“It is unfortunate that not much attention was given to modernise Indian Railways. But now our government is working for the transformation of Indian Railways,” Modi said.
“I am confident that the changes taking place at every level in Indian Railways and society will prove to be an important step towards a developed India,” the prime minister said.
He said that to achieve the goal of a developed India by 2047, the development of every state and the people of every state is necessary. “We have to move ahead with a vision of sabka saath, sabka vikas,” he said.
The nine trains will provide faster connectivity across 11 states — Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha, Jharkhand and Gujarat.
The new Vande Bharat trains flagged off by the prime minister will run on these routes: Udaipur-Jaipur; Tirunelveli-Madurai-Chennai; Hyderabad-Bengaluru; Vijayawada-Chennai (via Renigunta); Patna-Howrah; Kasaragod-Thiruvananthapuram; Rourkela-Bhubaneswar-Puri; Ranchi-Howrah; and Jamnagar-Ahmedabad.
These trains are a step towards realising the prime minister’s vision of improving connectivity across the country and providing world-class facilities to rail passengers, according to an official statement.
“The Vande Bharat trains will be the fastest train along the routes of their operation and will help save considerable time of the passengers,” it said.
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