Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday 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.
Flagging off the Vande Bharat Express trains via video conferencing, Modi also slammed the previous governments for not paying adequate attention for modernisation of railways and assured 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.
The trains stopped at various stations where they were welcomed by enthusiastic school children and hoards of people with elected representatives addressing functions en route.
Union minister Kailash Choudhary and Rajasthan BJP president C P Joshi boarded the Vande Bharat Express train at Udaipur and travelled till Chhittorgarh where a huge crowd of BJP workers raised the slogans of 'Vande Mataram' and 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' as the train chugged into the station.
In his address, the prime minister said the popularity of Vande Bharat trains was rising constantly and more than 1.11 crore passengers have already travelled in them.
He said 25 Vande Bharat Express trains were already functional and nine more were being added on Sunday.
"This speed and scale of infrastructure development in the country is exactly matching the aspirations of 140 crore Indians," Modi 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.
"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.
"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.
Modi said that selfish thinking of concentrating railway development in the state of the railway minister has damaged the country a lot and "now we simply can not afford to keep any state backwards."
"We have to move ahead with a vision of sabka saath, sabka vikas," he said.
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.
The introduction of these Vande Bharat trains will herald a new standard of rail service in the country, the statement said.
These trains, equipped with world-class amenities and advanced safety features, including Kavach technology, will be a key step towards providing modern, speedy and comfortable means of travel to common people, professionals, businessmen, student community and tourists, it added.