With Assembly polls in few States round the corner, fresh spice of Vande Bharat train series are back on the platter of the voters as Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday flagged off six Vande Bharat Trains and also launched various projects worth Rs 660 crore.
The PM’s schedule to flag off the trains and other projects from the Tatanagar Railway Station had to be modified in the morning due to inclement weather which was not feasible for helicopter service from Ranchi to Tata.
Modi landed at Ranchi and the programme had to be scheduled virtually. PM apologised to the people for not being able to reach Tatanagar as “my chopper could not take off from Ranchi due to bad weather”.
Later during the day PM reached Jamshedpur by road to attend the political programmes and a Parivartan Maha Rally as per schedule. Modi is on a three-day visit to Jharkhand, Gujarat and Odisha where he will flag off several trains, lay the foundation stones and launch projects worth more than Rs 12,460 crore. Jharkhand goes to polls this November.
He flagged off six Vande Bharat trains for Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar and UP at Ranchi. Union Ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Annapurna Devi and Sanjay Seth and Jharkhand Governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar were present at Tatanagar station.
Sources said some of the rail projects for poll bound Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir are also in pipeline. “The work of laying railway lines, doubling of these and developing modern facilities at railway stations are underway at a fast pace in Jharkhand,” Modi said.
Jharkhand, which was lagging in development, will also see rapid growth with the launch of these projects, he said. “The Centre has increased its investment for the development of Jharkhand. This year, Jharkhand has been given an allocation of Rs 7,000 crore for the development of railway infrastructure. If we compare the budget of the past 10 years, it is 16 times higher. Jharkhand has joined the list of States where 100 per cent electrification of the railway network has been achieved,” he said.
