PM Modi flags off 10 Vande Bharat trains Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off 10 new high-speed Vande Bharat trains on Tuesday via video conferencing from Ahmedabad.
After the inauguration and laying of foundation stone for several railway projects, Modi said that “the governments that came after independence gave priority to political selfishness…
The Indian Railways is a major victim of that” PM Modi flags off 10 Vande Bharat trains
“I would like to tell the youth that the today inaugurations that happened today are for your present. The foundation stone laying that happened today has come with the guarantee of your bright future,” he said.
“The governments that came after independence gave priority to political selfishness. The Indian Railways is a major victim of that…The first that I did was to include Railways into the Budget of the Government. Due to this, government funds are now being used for the development of the Railways.”
Of the 10 new trains, two are from Vishakhapatnam, which will take the number of Vande Bharat trains operating from the city in Andhra Pradesh to three.
PM Modi flags off 10 Vande Bharat trains The new trains will operate between Puri-Visakhapatnam and Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam.
Speaking to the ANI news agency, Divisional Railway Manager Sourabh Prasad said, “We have two trains which will touch Visakhapatnam. One is Puri-Visakhapatnam Vande Bharat Express and the other is Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam Vande Bharat Express. Puri-Visakhapatnam Vande Bharat Express will be flagged off at 9 am virtually.”
He also said that an inauguration event at the Visakhapatnam station would mark the flagging off of the two new trains.
“A lot of other projects will also be dedicated to the nation by the Prime Minister, including the ‘One Station, One Product’ (OSOP) stalls,” Prasad added.
PM Modi flags off 10 Vande Bharat trains The OSOP scheme was launched by the Union Ministry of Railways to promote the Centre’s ‘Vocal for Local’ vision.
Since the Prime Minister flagged off the first Vande Bharat train in 2010 from Delhi to Varanasi, there are a total of 41 such trains operating across the Indian Railways network.
51 Vande Bharat trains
After the inauguration on March 12, the tally of Vande Bharat trains hits a solid 51, covering a whopping 45 routes. PM Modi flags off 10 Vande Bharat trains Kasaragod–Thiruvananthapuram, Delhi to Katra, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Delhi to Varanasi, Mysuru-Chennai and now Visakhapatnam–Secunderabad will be the routes boasting two Vande Bharat trains.
Jharkhand will get its third Vande Bharat train. The first, which operates between Ranchi and Patna, was flagged off on June 27, 2023. The second, between Ranchi and Howrah, was launched on September 24, 2023. Now, Jharkhand will get one in the Ranchi-Varanasi route that will become operational on March 18.
Star cities
Delhi emerges as the star player with 10 Vande Bharat trains. Delhi is now connected with Amb Andaura, Amritsar, Ayodhya, Bhopal, PM Modi flags off 10 Vande Bharat trains Dehradun and Khajuraho. Mumbai is not far behind with six and Chennai hosts five. Mysuru gears up to welcome its second Vande Bharat train.
New routes
New tracks for the Vande Bharat Express include routes from Dehradun to Lucknow, Patna to Lucknow and New Jalpaiguri to Patna. There’s more; trains will connect Bhubaneswar with Visakhapatnam, Kalaburagi (formerly Gulbarga) with Bengaluru, Ranchi with Varanasi and Khajuraho with Delhi.
Also, Ahmedabad and Mumbai will get the second set of Vande Bharat trains, as do Secunderabad and Visakhapatnam, as well as Bengaluru and Chennai.
Divisional Railway Manager (Waltair Division) Saurabh Prasad confirmed that, of the two Vande Bharat trains, one will run between Visakhapatnam and Bhubaneswar and the other will operate between Visakhapatnam and Secunderabad.
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PM Modi flags off 10 Vande Bharat trains “These two new Vande Bharat Express trains are in addition to the existing service on this route,” Prasad told ANI.
Routes with extensions
Not just new trains, but some old routes get extended too. Thiruvananthapuram-Kasargod will push on to Mangaluru, Ahmedabad-Jamnagar will reach Dwarka, Gorakhpur-Lucknow will extend to Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad), and the Ajmer-Delhi route will stretch to Chandigarh.
