President lauded government in modernising railways, in his address to Houses of Parliament

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: “My government is modernising the Indian Railways at a fast pace. In the last 7 years, 24,000 km of railway routes have been electrified,” President Ram Nath Kovind said while addressing the joint sittings of both the Houses of Parliament at the start of the budget sessions on Monday.

Expressing the commitment of the government for developing railway infrastructure, the President said the New Vande Bharat trains and the new vista dome coaches have added new feathers to the Indian railways.  He also informed both the Houses that the works of new rail tracks and double-railway tracks are being carried out rapidly.

He, citing the re-developed Rani Kamalapati in Madhya Pradesh and the Gandhinagar Railway stations in Gujarat as world-class railway stations, lauded the railways for providing the new glimpses of modern India through these stations.

He also termed the arch rail bridge, being constructed across the river Chenab in Kashmir, in his address to both the Houses of the Parliament as a centre of attraction. “It is a matter of pride for the country that the capitals of North-East’s all states are coming on the railway map with the efforts of my government,” he said, adding that the rail and air connectivity has now no longer a dream for the people of north-east states, namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.

Besides this, touching upon the government’s works on public transport, the President said that eleven new metro routes have been stated for benefiting the people in 8 states every day.

“India is now also among the four countries in the world having largest driverless train networks,” he claimed and further added that an Indigenous Automatic Train System (IATS) has also been developed in the country symbolising the growing capability of ‘Make in India’.

In his address to the joint sittings of members of both the Houses, the President further cited that the railway ran more than 1900 Kissan rails during the Covid periods on 150 routes for transporting about 6 lakh MT of agriculture products.

Meanwhile, the Indian railway claimed on Monday that three zones out of 16, have achieved the targets of total electrification. “In a major leap towards 100 per cent electrification, 3 zones of Indian Railways namely West Central Railway, the Kolkata Metro and the East Coast Railway have been fully electrified reducing carbon footprints,” the ministry of Railway claimed.