PM flags off 6 Vande Bharat expresses, says every city now wants such trains

JAMSHEDPUR/RANCHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday flagged off six new Vande Bharat trains and railway projects worth Rs 660 crore virtually in Jharkhand from Ranchi’s Birsa Munda airport. Addressing the crowd virtually at Tatanagar railway station, PM Modi said that every state and city now wants to have high-speed trains such as Vande Bharat.
“I flagged off three new Vande Bharat trains in north and south India just a few days ago.The six new trains will strengthen the economy of the eastern India. It will benefit businessmen and students and enhance economic and cultural activities,” he said after the inauguration.

Modi remained held up at Ranchi airport for more than two hours as his chopper remained grounded due to inclement weather and heavy rainfall in Jamshedpur, forcing him to flag off the Vande Bharat trains virtually from the airport itself. Later, he reached the Steel City by road and addressed the BJP’s Parivartan rally.
“There was a time when modern facilities and infrastructure were limited only to a few cities, but the mantra of ‘Sabka Saath and Sabka Vikas’ changed India’s priorities in terms of development. Today, the priority of the country is the poor, Adivasis, Dalit, backward communities, farmers, women and the youth,” the PM said.
Among the trains flagged off virtually were the Tatanagar-Patna Vande Bharat Express, Deoghar-Varanasi Vande Bharat Express, Tatanagar-Brahmapur (Odisha) Vande Bharat Express, Bhagalpur-Howrah Vande Bharat Express, Gaya-Howrah Vande Bharat Express and the Rourkela-Tatanagar-Howrah Vande Bharat Express. Modi also laid the foundation stones of a new coaching depot in Hazaribag, a bypass line in Deoghar’s Madhupur and inaugurated a 24.4 km long Kurkura-Kanaroan railway line project and 16 underpasses in the state.
With Jharkhand slated to go to the elections in a few months, PM Modi also transferred funds meant to be the first instalment for building homes under the Center’s PMAY (Rural) to 8,000 beneficiaries in the state. “We have sanctioned 1.13 lakh homes to the poor under the scheme in Jharkhand,” Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said at the function.