New Delhi-Katra Vande Bharat Express flagged off
Union Home Minister Amit Shah flags off Semi -high speed train Vande Bharat Express from New Delhi to Katra near Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine in Jammu, Prime Minister Modi tweets, calls it a Navratra Gift to devotees.
The first commercial run of the Delhi-Katra Vande Bharat Express will take place on Friday.
Katra is the last station on the way to famous Hindu pilgrimage Vaishno Devi. The Vande Bharat Express will reduce the journey time between Delhi-Katra, from a usual travel time of 12 hours on this route. The convenient, safe, modern and super fast train will only take 8 hrs to reach Katra. The train will run on all days except for Tuesday.
The luxurious train has facilities such as CCTV surveillance, Bio vacuum toilet, GPS Based information system and onboard Wi-Fi internet.
En-route, the train will halt at Ambala Cantt, Ludhiana and Jammu Tawi for two minutes each.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated everyone on the occasion and said its a Navaratri gift for my sisters and brothers of Jammu as well as devotees of Maa Vaishno Devi. He said the New Vande Bharat Express from New Delhi to Maa Vaishno Devi, Katra will improve connectivity as well as spiritual tourism.
Speaking on the occasion, Home Minister Amit Shah said the Delhi-Katra Vande Bharat Express is a big gift for Jammu and Kashmir’s development and for promoting religious tourism. He further added that the government has taken several steps to make the rail journey easy, safe and enjoyable.
Amit Shah also said that Article 370 was the “biggest roadblock” in the state’s development. He added that within 10 years, it will be one of the most developed regions of the country.
Union Minister Dr Harshvardhan said that Vande Bharat Express is better than any other state of the art train with respect to facilities and quality.
Speaking on the occasion, Union Ministers Dr Jitendra Singh said that Vande Bharat express will play an important role in the development of Jammu and Kashmir.
Union Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal has described Vande Bharat Express as a milestone in the development of Kashmir. He said that the railway line being built up to Banihal will change the face of Kashmir. The Union Railway Minister said that in the last 5 years, more than 5 thousand railway stations across the country were connected to WiFi and in the next two-three months this number will cross six thousand.