Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday flagged 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.
The Prime Minister flagged off the trains through video conferencing.
The new Vande Bharat trains 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.
On the occassiion, the PM said that it was ‘unfortunate’ that earlier not much attention was given to modernising Indian railways and asserted that his government was working on its transformation.
Modi made the remarks in his address before flagging off nine Vande Bharat trains connecting religious and tourist destinations across 11 states.
“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.
In his remarks, Modi also said that all Indians are proud of new India’s accomplishments and the common person’s expectations have reached sky high due to the success of Chandrayaan-3.
The success of 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.
As compared to the current fastest train along the route, Rourkela- Bhubaneswar Puri and Kasaragod – Thiruvananthapuram, the Vande Bharat trains will cut travel time between respective destinations by about three hours; Hyderabad Bengaluru by more than 2.5 hours; Tirunelveli-Madurai- Chennai by more than 2 hours.
The travel time between Ranchi Howrah and Patna Howrah and Jamnagar-Ahmedabad will be reduced by about one hour when compared with the fastest trains currently available between these destinations.
The travel time between Udaipur – Jaipur will be reduced by about half an hour.
The Rourkela- Bhubaneswar Puri and Tirunelveli-Madurai- Chennai trains will connect important religious towns of Puri and Madurai.
Also, the Vijayawada Chennai Vande Bharat Express will operate via the Renigunta route and will provide connectivity to Tirupati pilgrimage centre.
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.
