Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said it was unfortunate that earlier not much attention was given to modernising Indian railways and asserted that his government was working for its transformation.
Modi made the remarks in his address before flagging off nine Vande Bharat trains connecting religious and tourist destinations across 11 states. 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 via video conferencing ahead of the flag off, Modi said the speed and scale of infrastructure development is matching the aspirations of 140 crore Indians. He said the popularity of Vande Bharat trains is constantly rising and over 1,11,00,000 passengers have already travelled in them.
The prime minister noted that 25 Vande Bharat trains are running and now nine more have been added. That day is not far when these trains will connect all parts of the country, he said.
“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.
“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.
The new Vande Bharat trains flagged off by the PM will run between: 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.
