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Modi flags off 9 Vande Bharats across 11 states
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has flagged off nine Vande Bharat Express trains, connecting religious and tourist destinations across 11 states. Modi said the speed and scale of infrastructure development in the country is now matching the aspirations of the 1.4 billion Indians. The popularity of Vande Bharat trains is constantly rising and over 11.1 million passengers have already travelled in them, he said. With the addition of the nine new trains, there are now 34 Vande Bharat trains across the country.
The speed and scale of infrastructure development in the country is now matching the aspirations of the 1.4 billion Indians, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday as he flagged off nine Vande Bharat Express trains connecting religious and tourist destinations across 11 states.
Addressing the event virtually, the PM also hit out at previous governments for not paying adequate attention to the modernisation of railways. But, he said, the “day is not far when Vande Bharat will connect every part of the country”.
“The speed and scale of infrastructure development are matching with the aspirations of 140 crore Indians. Today, people of Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha, Jharkhand and Gujarat will get the facility of Vande Bharat Express trains. These new Vande Bharat Express trains depict the new energy of the country,” PM Modi said.
The popularity of Vande Bharat trains is constantly rising and over 11,100,000 passengers have already travelled in them, he said.
“The 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 a day is more than the population of many countries,” he said.
With the addition of the nine new trains, there are now 34 Vande Bharat trains across the country.
The announcement was not without political context. Of the 11 states, 10 — Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha and Jharkhand — are ruled by parties that are not from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Of these, Telangana and Rajasthan are expected to have assembly elections later this year.
“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.
Selfish thinking of concentrating railway development in the state of the railway minister has hurt the country a lot and “now we simply cannot afford to keep any state backwards”.
“Earlier when cabinets were formed, people used to speculate about the railways ministry the most. There was a belief that the state that the railway minister belongs to will get the maximum number of new trains. Such selfish thinking harmed not only the railways sector but the whole nation,” he said, in a veiled attack at Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad, who was the railway minister between 2004 and 2009, and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who held the portfolio from 2009 to 2011.
To achieve the goal of a developed India by 2047 “we have to move ahead with a vision of sabka saath, sabka vikas”, he 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, highlighting that his government has increased the railways budget eight-fold as compared to the 2014 budget.
In his remarks, Modi also said all Indians are proud of new India’s accomplishments and the common person’s expectations are now “sky-high” due to the success of Chandrayaan-3.
The success of the G20 Summit has given confidence that India has power of democracy, demography, and diversity, he said. “World has hailed our women-led development and to advance this vision the government brought Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam,” he said.
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 schoolchildren and hoards of people with elected representatives addressing functions en route.
Union minister Kailash Choudhary and Rajasthan Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president CP Joshi boarded the Vande Bharat Express train at Udaipur and travelled till Chhitorgarh 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.
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, a statement from the PM’s office said. “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.
The nine trains have a host of new features which were included after passengers’ feedback, officials said.
The railways also rolled out its first orange coloured Vande Bharat Express from Kasargod to Thiruvananthapuram, a high demand route which now operates two such trains, a senior Indian Railways official said.
Among the new features introduced on the trains based on passenger feedback are: the seat reclination angle raised from 17.31 degrees to 19.37 degrees, hardness of cushion optimised and the colour of seat in executive class coach changed from red to blue.
The changes also include improved accessibility of mobile charging point under the seats, extended footrests and magazine bags for executive class coach-end seats as well.
