SHAH FLAGS OFF VANDE BHARAT
NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir will lead the country in terms of development over the next decade, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Thursday as he flagged off the inaugural Vande Bharat Express from New Delhi to Katra; the train will reduce the travel time between the two places from 12 hours to eight.
NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) will lead the country in terms of development over the next decade, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Thursday as he flagged off the inaugural Vande Bharat Express from New Delhi to Katra; the train will reduce the travel time between the two places from 12 hours to eight.
Shah said the second Vande Bharat Express was the fastest train yet to J&K and called it Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s big gift for the region, and will bring development to the region and boost religious tourism. Katra is a town near the foothills of the Trikuta Mountains, where the Vaishno Devi shrine is located, around 40 km from Jammu.
Modi launched the first Vande Bharat Express, India’s locally built semi high-speed train that can reach speeds of 160 km per hour, on February 15, between New Delhi and Varanasi. The railways has set a target for 40 new Vande Bharat Express trains by 2022.
Shah said the Centre’s move in August to scrap the Constitutional provisions, which gave a measure of autonomy to J&K and prevented non-residents from buying property there, will help eliminate terrorism and the ideologies that have spawned it. “Every Indian was of the opinion that [Article] 370 and 35A need to go. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government did it. Article 370 was a roadblock to J&K’s development and its true integration with India... After its removal, the evil of terrorism would be completely eliminated from J&K.”
Shah also called Vande Bharat Express a big tribute to Mahatma Gandhi’s vision as India celebrated his 150th birth anniversary on Wednesday. “It [the train] is a complete product of the Make in India project… The struggle for independence got momentum as he [Mahatma Gandhi] used railway journeys to send his message across. Just like [in case of] independence, the railways will be an important tool in achieving the $5 trillion economy goal of PM Modi [by 2024],” Shah said.
Railways minister Piyush Goyal, who also spoke at the inauguration, said the Centre plans to have railway connectivity between Kashmir and Kanyakumari, the country’s southernmost point, before August 2022.