PM Modi flags off 10 new Vande Bharat trains, lays foundation stone of railway projects
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi flags off 10 new Vande Bharat trains.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of various railway projects in Ahmedabad, the capital city of the Indian state of Gujarat on Tuesday (Mar 12).
Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and state BJP chief CR Paatil were also present at the launching ceremony.
PM Modi also flagged off 10 new Vande Bharat trains from Ahmedabad on Tuesday (Mar 12).
Speaking at the event, PM Modi said, "India is a young country, a large young population resides here. I would like to tell the youth that the today inaugurations that happened today are for your present. The foundation stone layings that happened today have come with the guarantee of your bright future."
"The governments that came after independence gave priority to political selfishness. Indian Railway is a major victim of that...The first that I did was to include Railway into the Budget of the Government, due to that funds of the Government are now used for the development of Railway," he added.
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"Our government showed the willpower needed to pull out Indian Railways from a hell-like situation. Now, the development of the Railway is one of the highest priorities for the government," the prime minister stated.
Here are the routes of new Vande Bharat trains
The Vande Bharat trains will now be running between Ahmedabad-Mumbai Central; Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam; Mysuru-Dr MGR Central (Chennai); Patna-- Lucknow; New Jalpaiguri-Patna; Puri-Visakhapatnam; Lucknow-Dehradun; Kalaburagi–Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal Bengaluru; Ranchi-Varanasi and Khajuraho-Delhi (Nizamuddin).
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PM Modi also flagged off the extension of four Vande Bharat trains. Ahmedabad-Jamnagar Vande Bharat was extended till Dwarka and Ajmer-Delhi Sarai Rohilla Vande Bharat will now run till Chandigarh.
Gorakhpur-Lucknow Vande Bharat will get extended till Prayagraj and Thiruvananthapuram- Kasargod Vande Bharat will run till Mangaluru.
(With inputs from agencies)