Bhubaneswar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today flagged off the third Vande Bharat Express train on Visakhapatnam-Bhubaneswar route.
The Prime Minister flagged off the train virtually from Ahmedabad along with other railway projects across the country.
The new Vande Bharat Express train will operate six days a week, except Saturdays. This is the State’s third Vande Bharat Express train. The first two operate on the Puri-Howrah and Puri-Rourkela routes.
The PM Laid foundation stone and dedicated 274 railways in Odisha today. These projects includes 162 Electronic Interlocking systems, 41 One Station One Product (OSOP) stalls, 50 Solar power stations, 5 Goods Sheds, 9 new line, doubling & 3rd line projects, 4 Auto signalling systems, 1 GatiSakthi terminal, 1 Jan Ausadhi Kendra and 1 Rail coach restaurant.
The PM also inaugurated the Rs 234-crore Haridaspur-Byree section (16.8 km) of the Bhadrak-Nergundi third line, the Rs 131-crore Damanjodi-Baiguda section (14.6 km) of the Korapur-Raigada doubling project, Rs 167-crore Singapur Road-Rayagada section (9.2 km) of the Vijianagam-Titlagarh third line and the Rs 123-crore Similiguda-Araku-Gorapur (21.6 km) section of the Kotavlasa-Koraput doubling project.
Modi also inaugurated 162 electronic interlocking systems, 41 ‘One Station One Product’ (OSOP) stalls, 50 solar-powered stations, five goods sheds, four auto signalling systems, a Gati Sakti terminal, a Jan Ausadhi Kendra and a rail coach restaurant.
Addressing the occasion, the Prime Minister acknowledged the lakhs of people connected to the event from more than 200 different places and said that the scale and size of today’s event cannot be matched with any other event in Railways’ history.
“In the 75 days of 2024, projects worth more than Rs 11 lakh crores have been inaugurated or foundation stones laid while projects worth Rs 7 lakh crores have been unveiled in the last 10-12 days”, he said.
Noting that today’s organization is a crucial step towards accomplishing the goal of Viksit Bharat, the Prime Minister said that projects worth about Rs 1 lakh crore have been inaugurated or foundation stones laid where projects worth around Rs 85,000 crores are dedicated to railways.
Referring to the incremental approach of the Railway Budgets before 2014, the Prime Minister talked about the inclusion of the Railway Budget in the General Budget that made it possible to provide railway expenditure from the General Budget.
The Prime Minister said, “Our government has displayed the willpower to bring the railways out of those hellish conditions. Now Railways development is among the top priorities of the government.”
He informed that not only most of the States have got Vande Bharat trains but the century of Vande Bharat Trains has already been hit. Vande Bharat Network is touching 250 districts of the country. In deference to people’s wishes, routes of Vande Bharat are being extended.
The Prime Minister criticized those who link these initiatives with elections. “For us, these development projects are not for forming a government but they are a mission of nation building” Next generation will not face the problem of the previous generations and ‘this is Modi’s guarantee”, he said.
The Prime Minister presented Eastern and Western dedicated freight corridors as an example of development in the last 10 years.
This separate track for goods trains improves speed and is important for agriculture, industry, export and business. In the last 10 years, this freight corridor, connecting the east and west coasts, has been almost completed.
Concluding the address, the Prime Minister said, “Indian Railways will continue to move ahead at the pace of modernity. This is Modi’s guarantee.” He called upon the citizens for their cooperation to continue this celebration of development.