Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually flag off a Vande Bharat train between Secunderabad and Visakhapatnam on January 15, Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy has said. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Kishan Reddy would be present at the Secunderabad railway station for the inaugural service.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually flag off the prestigious Vande Bharat train from Secunderabad Railway Station on 15th January at 10.00 AM as a gift to the Telugu people on the occasion of Sankranti," Kishan Reddy said in a release on Wednesday night.
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The eighth Vande Bharat train in the country and a second for South India will run between Secunderabad and Visakhapatnam in approximately eight hours. The intermediate stops envisaged for the train include Warangal, Khammam, Vijayawada and Rajahmundry, the release added.
Earlier, PM Modi was scheduled to flag off the Vande Bharat Express train and launch railway redevelopment projects in Telangana on January 19. However, on Wednesday, the launching of railway redevelopment projects has been postponed.
Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay said that the revised schedule of PM Modi's visit will be announced soon. PM Modi was scheduled to dedicate the 85-km-long, double-track Secunderabad–Mahabubnagar Railway to the nation. The project will cost Rs 1,410 crores.
At the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad, the Prime Minister was also supposed to dedicate construction projects worth Rs 2,597 crore. He was also supposed to lay the foundation stone for several projects, including the Rs 699 crore modernisation and enhancement of Secunderabad Railway Station and the Rs 521 crore railway periodic overhauling workshop at Kazipet.
He was also scheduled to launch work on widening and strengthening to 2/4 lane 60 km of the Mahabubnagar-Chincholi section of National Highway 167N. The work is to be taken up at an estimated cost of Rs 704 crore.