Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said it was unfortunate that earlier not much attention was given to modernising Indian railways and asserted that his government was working for its transformation.
Modi made the remarks in his address before flagging off nine Vande Bharat trains connecting religious and tourist destinations across 11 states.
The nine trains will provide faster connectivity across 11 states -- Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha, Jharkhand and Gujarat.
In his address via video conferencing ahead of the flag off, Modi said the speed and scale of infrastructure development is matching the aspirations of 140 crore Indians.
He said the popularity of Vande Bharat trains is constantly rising and over 1,11,00,000 passengers have already travelled in them.
The prime minister noted that 25 Vande Bharat trains are running and now nine more have been added.
That day is not far when these trains will connect all parts of the country, he said.
"Indian railways is the most trusted co-passenger of India's poor and middle-class people. The number of people who travel in the railways in one day is more than the population of many countries," he said.
"It is unfortunate that not much attention was given to modernise Indian railways. But now our government is working for the transformation of Indian railways," Modi said.
In his remarks, Modi also said that all Indians are proud of new India's accomplishments and the common person's expectations have reached sky high due to the success of Chandrayaan-3.
The success of G20 Summit has given confidence that India has power of democracy, demography, and diversity, he said.
"World has hailed our women-led development and to advance this vision the government brought Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam," he said.
The new Vande Bharat trains flagged off by the PM will run between: Udaipur-Jaipur; Tirunelveli-Madurai-Chennai; Hyderabad-Bengaluru; Vijayawada-Chennai (via Renigunta); Patna-Howrah; Kasaragod-Thiruvananthapuram; Rourkela-Bhubaneswar -Puri; Ranchi-Howrah; and Jamnagar-Ahmedabad.
These trains are a step towards realising the prime minister's vision of improving connectivity across the country and providing world class facilities to rail passengers, according to an official statement.
"The Vande Bharat trains will be the fastest train along the routes of their operation and will help save considerable time of the passengers," it said.
The introduction of these Vande Bharat trains will herald a new standard of rail service in the country, the statement said.
These trains, equipped with world class amenities and advanced safety features, including Kavach technology, will be a key step towards providing modern, speedy and comfortable means of travel to common people, professionals, businessmen, student community and tourists, it added.
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