Chunav Manch: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday (October 15) compared Team India's spectacular seven-wicket win over Pakistan in the ODI World Cup match with the speed of Vande Bharat Express.
Speaking at the day-long India TV Chunav Manch conclave in Bhopal, Vaishnaw gave a detailed presentation about the achievements of Indian Railways, and while doing so, he played a video clip to say that Team India reached its 192-run target in 30.3 overs "with Vande Bharat Express speed".
Asked whether Vande Bharat Express will phase out most of the existing high-speed trains on Indian Railways network, Vaishnaw said, "Vande Bharat is a new technology and we have already sacled up its manufacturing. We are introducing one Vande Bharat express almost every week. There are presently 22,000 trains running on Indian Railway network and a complete transformation will be a big challenge. 450 Vande Bharat Express trains have been sanctioned in this year's budget, and commuters are happy with this train."
On the much-anticipated Bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, the Railway Minister said, "must work has been done within a short time frame and till now 237 kilometer work has been completed. When the Japanese Prime Minister visited the site they were really, really amazed with the fast pace and high quality of work. This is Prime Minister Modi's vision of total transformation of our railways."
In the last nine years, Vaishnaw claimed, stations, trains, toilets and tracks have become much cleaner now. There has been a fundamental difference in work culture. In the last nine years, 25,871 kilometer new rail tracks were laid to boost capacity building. This is more than the entire rail network of South Africa and Italy combined. In the last one year, 5,200 km new rail tracks were added, equivalent to Switzerland's total train network. This is the scale of Modi's vision of work."
"In Madhya Pradesh alone, 1,741 km new rail tracks were added, equivalent to Sri Lanka's rail network. This fundamental shift was possible when the Railway Budget was merged with Union Budget resulting in eight times jump in Budgetary support to railways from Rs 29,055 crore in 2014 to Rs 2,40,000 crore at present.", Vaishnaw said.
The Railway Minister said, "Vande Bharat has till now travelled 62 lakh kilometer, which comes to 154 times the distance round-the-earth. Vande Bharat has now become a truly proved product. Its noise level is 100 times less compared to that of an aeroplane. Vande Bharat has become the past and future for Indian Railways. "
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