Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off 10 new high-speed Vande Bharat trains on Tuesday via video conferencing from Ahmedabad. The Prime Minister said that the work done in the past 10 years for the development of the nation is" just a trailer".
After the inauguration and laying of foundation stone for several railway projects, Modi said, "This day is a living proof of willpower. Youth of the country will decide what kind of country and railway they want.
"Ye 10 saal ka kaam abhi toh trailer hai, mujhe toh aur aage jaana hai (The work in these 10 years is just a trailer, I still have to go further)," he asserted.
He also said that "the governments that came after independence gave priority to political selfishness... The Indian Railways is a major victim of that".
"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."
The 10 new trains will operate between Ahmedabad-Mumbai Central, Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam, Puri-Visakhapatnam, Mysuru-MGR Central (Chennai), Patna-Lucknow, New Jalpaiguri-Patna, Lucknow-Dehradun, Kalaburagi- Sir M Vishvesvaraya Terminal Benguluru, Varanasi-Ranchi and Khajuraho-Nizamuddin (Delhi).
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.
