President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday flagged off three new trains from Odisha’s Badampahar railway station. Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnav, Dharmendra Pradhan were also present on the occasion. The President is also slated to lay the foundation stone of the redevelopment of Badampahar Railway Station under the Amrit Station Scheme.
The trains — Shalimar-Badampahar and Badampahar-Rourkela weekly express trains and one MEMU between Badampahar and Tatanagar — "will connect tribal areas with bigger cities and give a huge boost to the local economy, access to healthcare and tribal tourism, among others," a railway official said ahead of the inauguration, reported PTI.
The Shalimar-Badampahar Weekly Express will be the first-ever express train to connect Shalimar near Kolkata in West Bengal with Badampahar in Odisha, according to the railways.
The second express train would boost the connectivity between the mineral rich areas of Badampahar with Rourkela, the Steel City of India.
The Tatanagar-Badampahar MEMU will serve as an important means for commuters as it would run six days a week except Sunday, as per the PTI report.
The trains will pass through mineral rich and industrial areas that would facilitate faster connectivity, said the South Eastern Railway (SER) zone — under which these areas fall — adding that people from nearby areas will also be able to avail this train service for visiting bigger cities for various purposes.
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"It will benefit students and job aspirants by providing easy access to the premier educational institutes and corporate houses," an official from the South Eastern Railway (SER) said, as per the report.
Patients from the area would now be able to easily consult doctors and avail treatment at reputable hospitals of Kolkata and Tatanagar, he added.