President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday spoke of the efforts of the Indian Railways in taking the rail network to regions which were previously inaccessible. In her first address to the joint sitting of Parliament on the first day of the Budget session, Murmu said the Indian Railways has emerged as a modern institution.
She also mentioned the government's ambitious Vande Bharat trains and said hundreds of such trains will be launched. With the indigenous trains being deployed across the country, the upcoming budget is likely to announce a new sleeper version of the train.
"The Indian Railways is emerging as a modern institution and many inaccessible areas are being added to the rail map of the country. A modern and semi high-speed train has become part of the Indian Railways in the form of Vande Bharat Express. Inaccessible areas of Jammu and Kashmir and the North East are also being connected. Major railway stations of the country are being modernised.
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"The Indian Railways is fast moving towards becoming the world’s largest electric railway network. We are also rapidly expanding indigenous technology -- Kavach -- to make the railways safer," she said. The railways has over the years made major inroads into both Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast regions, which were completely disconnected from mainland India by train.
The Jammu–Baramulla railway line is being laid to connect Kashmir Valley with Jammu railway station and thence to the rest of the country. Kavach has been adopted as the National Automatic Train Protection system and begun its deployment on the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah circuits (about 3,000 km), for which tenders were awarded in 2022.
