Bhubaneswar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday flagged off nine Vande Bharat trains across 11 states, including Odisha through video-conferencing, taking the total number of these semi high-speed trains to 34.
Governor Ganeshi Lal, Union Minister of Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan and a number of MPs and MLAs attended a function at the Bhubaneswar railway station that witness the launch of the second Vande Bharat Express for Odisha on Puri-Rourkela route.
Besides Rourkela-Puri Vande Bharat Express, the Prime Minister also flagged off Vande Bharat Express trains in Kerala (Kasaragod-Thiruvanthapuram), Rajasthan (Jaipur-Udaipur), Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu (Vijayawada-Chennai), Tamil Nadu (Tirunelveli-Chennai), Gujarat (Jamnagar-Ahmedabad), Jharkhand and West Bengal (Ranchi-Howrah), Telangana and Karnataka (Secunderabad (Kacheguda)-Bengaluru (Yesvantpur) and Bihar and West Bengal (Patna-Howrah).
In his address on the occasion, Modi said that these trains will significantly improve connectivity and boost tourism across India. “Twenty-five Vande Bharat trains are already running, now nine more will be added to them. The popularity of Vande Bharat trains is constantly rising. Over 1,11,00,000 passengers have already travelled on them.”
He further said that the new Vande Bharat Express train has lot more improved and enhanced amenities and features for the comfort of the passengers, along with advanced safety features, including Kavach technology.
