Modi flags off Dehradun to Delhi Vande Bharat Express, India gets its 18th semi high-speed train

Modi flags off Dehradun to Delhi Vande Bharat Express, India gets its 18th semi high-speed train

New Delhi: Fresh off a three-nation tour, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday virtually flagged off Uttarakhand’s first Vande Bharat Express between Dehradun and Delhi.

He said at the event that India was being “watched with great hope” and that the world wanted to come here to see the country and to understand its essence. “In such a situation, there are excellent opportunities for states like Uttarakhand. The Vande Bharat train will also help Uttarakhand in taking full advantage of this opportunity,” the Prime Minister said.

The semi high-speed is India’s 18th and Uttarakhand’s first, and will soon commence from Dehradun to Delhi’s Anand Vihar terminal. It will cover the 302 kilometre distance in 4 hours and 45 minutes. Regular operations are slated to begin 29 May and the train will run on all days except Wednesday.

The Prime Minister also informed that the Rs 12,000-crore Char Dham Project – the two-lane highway project that will connect the pilgrim towns of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri – was going on at “a fast pace”. “We have transformed the Indian railways since 2014. We began by making the dream of high-speed trains a reality. Six thousand kilometres of railway lines are electrified every year compared to the 600 km before 2014,” he said.

Modi arrived in Delhi Thursday from a visit to Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia, during which he also met the G7 leaders. He is the first Indian Prime Minister to have visited Papua New Guinea.

After having taken up the issue of frequent attacks on Hindu temples in Australia, Modi told a gathering Thursday that the world agreed with him that such vandalism was not acceptable.

The Prime Minister also took a veiled dig at the opposition’s decision to boycott the inauguration of the new Parliament building on 28 May.

The opposition, led by the Congress, has criticised Modi’s decision to inaugurate the building in the presence of the Lok Sabha Speaker. They said this decision insults the country’s top constitutional posts — that of President India Droupadi Murmu and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar.

Modi pointed out Thursday that a community event in Sydney – which he addressed on 23 May – was not only attended by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese but also by the country’s former premier and opposition lawmakers.

“The former Prime Minister was present at that function. There were MPs from the opposition and the ruling party. All of them took part in the community event,” Modi said. The event in Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena was packed to capacity Tuesday where Modi addressed the Indian diaspora,and also got called “the boss” by Albanese while referring to his popularity.

The Parliament function will see near-zero attendance of the opposition parties, which announced in a joint statement Wednesday: “When the soul of democracy has been sucked out from Parliament, we find no value in a new building.”