Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Bidar-Kalaburagi train, on the newly laid rail line on Sunday.
He later addressed a public meeting at the Nehru stadium. The prime minister said the inauguration of the railway line would reduce the distance between Bengaluru and Mumbai.
The line could have been opened at least seven years ago, had the previous UPA government sanctioned necessary funds for it, Modi said.
Recalling that the project was conceived when Atal Behari Vajpayee was the prime minister, he said a project that could have been completed in three years took so long to complete.
The prime minister claimed that 60% to 70% of the work on the crucial line was undertaken in the last three and a half years of the present government.
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