New Delhi, 24 September: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that Railways is the best companion for the poor and middle class. Today’s traveler wants ease of traveling and time saving in which Vande Bharat is playing an important role.
He said that this train is very convenient for those who want to travel from another city to their home in one day.
Prime Minister Modi today flagged off nine Vande Bharat trains through video conferencing. During this, while addressing the program, the Prime Minister said that the new trains being run today are modern and equipped with better facilities. People’s craze towards Vande Bharat is increasing in the country. So far, more than 1 crore 19 lakh passengers have traveled in it.
Modi assured that in the coming time, every part of the country will be connected by Vande Bharat Express trains. Today the government is trying to reduce the cost of transportation. This will also increase the country’s exports. For this reason, the budget of Railways has now been increased manifold.
The names of the new trains flagged off are: Udaipur-Jaipur Vande Bharat Express; Tirunelveli-Madurai-Chennai Vande Bharat Express; Hyderabad-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express; Vijayawada-Chennai (via Renigunta) Vande Bharat Express; Patna-Howrah Vande Bharat Express; Kasaragod-Thiruvananthapuram Vande Bharat Express; Rourkela-Bhubaneswar-Puri Vande Bharat Express; Ranchi-Howrah Vande Bharat Express; Jamnagar-Ahmedabad Vande Bharat Express. These nine trains will boost connectivity in 11 states β Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha, Jharkhand and Gujarat.
The Prime Minister said that in the previous governments, there was maximum discussion about who would become the Railway Minister. Most trains were run for the state from which the minister came. However, the trains which were announced never hit the tracks.
He said that this selfish thinking has caused more harm to the country than to the Railways.
During this, the Prime Minister gave information about the cleanliness campaign to be run in the country on October 1 and appealed to the people to participate in it as much as possible.
He also appealed to Khadi and Swadeshi on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti.
Describing the ongoing rejuvenation of railway stations as important, the Prime Minister said that they also play the role of accommodation for the passengers. Today a new tradition of celebrating the birthday of railway stations has started. In the coming time, it will be expanded and more stations and people will be connected to it.
The Prime Minister urged the railway employees to pay special attention to improving the ease of travel of the people.
He also praised his role in this context and congratulated him on people appreciating his work.
On this occasion, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that our effort has been to shift more and more passengers and freight traffic to the Railways.
Apart from this, he has also been working on electrifying the railways by freeing them from diesel. In the last 9 years, 37 thousand kilometers of railway lines have been electrified. This is equivalent to the total network of Germany.
