Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday flagged off the third Vande Bharat Express from the Gandhinagar Capital railway station. The upgraded version of the high-speed train that was first launched three years ago, ran at 130 kilometres per hour, covering the distance of 520 km between Gandhinagar and Mumbai in six hours and twenty minutes with stoppages of 13 minutes each in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat.
The event not only marked the arrival of a transformed Indian Railways, but also symbolized the resurgence of India under a visionary leader who is turning the slogan of Atmanirbhar Bharat into reality. The railways have as much benefitted from the vision of the Prime Minister as many other sectors of the economy.
Vande Bharat Express, launched in February 2019 on the New Delhi-Varanasi route, is India’s first indigenous high-speed train which is capable of achieving a speed of more than 180 kmph. The launch of the third Vande Bharat Express is an important step forward towards bringing railway services in the country on a par with the best in the world. The newer versions of the train, equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and top-notch passenger amenities, will be faster and sleeker. Manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, these ‘seating-only’, long-distance self-propelled ‘Made in India’ trains are approximately 40 per cent cheaper than similar trains imported from Europe.
Under Prime Minister Modi, India has also made significant strides in other areas, including satellite and launcher technology with increasing reliance on the brain and expertise of our own scientists and engineers. With indigenous technology providing the required impetus, the hallmark of the Indian space programme has been helping humankind through earth-oriented satellites for communication, remote sensing and navigation. Top space scientists admit that self-reliance is an obsession with India’s space programme now.
Signs of resurgence are visible elsewhere as well. With Swachh Bharat having turned into a national movement, thanks to the Prime Minister’s personal involvement with the campaign, India is looking much cleaner and statistics show a significant increase in tourist footfall in every part of the country. For example, the holy city of Varanasi, a tourist magnet, is looking much more attractive now with its streets and ghats along river Ganga being cleaned regularly. Foreigners, who were always fascinated by the rich cultural tradition of the city, which is a part of Prime Minister Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency, are flocking there in throngs bigger than ever before. This is also true of most other cities of India which are looking cleaner and boast of much better facilities for visitors.
An agent of positive change, Prime Minister Modi is a communicator and motivator par excellence. He has sought to inspire and accelerate the process of India’s resurgence with a string of well-crafted slogans, each aptly capturing the spirit of the multi-hued change that India is witnessing. Be it ‘Acche Din’, ‘Make in India’, ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’, ‘Minimum Government to Maximum Governance’, ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas,’ ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan Jai Vigyan’, ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ or ‘Vocal for Local’, each slogan has struck a chord with the masses. That is because, through sheer determination and hard work, he has transformed them from mere slogans into mottos that represent a new India that is stronger and more vibrant and confident than ever before.
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