Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday flagged off nine new Vande Bharat Express trains and said that these trains depicted new energy of the country. During the launch event, PM Modi said that the speed and scale of infrastructure development in the country are matching with aspirations of 140 crore Indians.

“The speed and scale of infrastructure development are matching with the aspirations of 140 crore Indians. Today people of Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha, Jharkhand and Gujarat will get the facility of Vande Bharat Express trains. These new Vande Bharat Express trains depict the new energy of the country,” PM Modi said while speaking at the launch of new trains.

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The prime minister said that the addition of nine more Vande Bharat Express trains to the existing 25-strong fleet shows the train’s rising popularity.

“The popularity of Vande Bharat trains is constantly rising. Over 1,11,00,000 crore passengers have already travelled on them,” he added.

The launch of these new Vande Bharat Express trains will connect religious and tourist destinations across 11 states.

The new trains are Kasaragad – Thiruvananthapuram Vande Bharat Express, Rourkela – Bhubaneswar – Puri Vande Bharat Express, Ranchi – Howrah Vande Bharat Express, Udaipur – Jaipur Vande Bharat Express, Tirunelveli-Madurai- Chennai Vande Bharat Express, Hyderabad –Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express, Vijayawada – Chennai (via Renigunta) Vande Bharat Express, Patna – Howrah Vande Bharat Express, and Jamnagar-Ahmedabad Vande Bharat Express.

These Vande Bharat trains will be the fastest trains along the routes of their operation. As compared to the current fastest train along the route, the Rourkela- Bhubaneswar – Puri Vande Bharat Express and Kasaragod – Thiruvananthapuram Vande Bharat Express will be faster by about 3 hours.

Hyderabad – Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express by more than 2.5 hours; Tirunelveli-Madurai- Chennai Vande Bharat Express by more than 2 hours.

Ranchi – Howrah Vande Bharat Express, Patna – Howrah Vande Bharat Express and Jamnagar-Ahmedabad Vande Bharat Express by about 1 hour; and Udaipur – Jaipur Vande Bharat Express by about half an hour.

(With ANI inputs)