Unprecedented work done in the past few years to modernise Indian Railways, says PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that there has been unprecedented progress in the modernization of Indian Railways in the past few years.

Modi was speaking after flagging off eight trains connecting different regions of the country to Kevadiya in Gujarat and inaugurating several railway-related projects in the state, via video conferencing.

"Earlier, the focus was limited to keeping the existing infrastructure running and there was little attention on new thinking or new technology. It was imperative to change this approach. In recent years, work was done on the comprehensive transformation of the entire railway system and it wasn’t limited to tinkering with the budget and new train announcements," PM said.

The transformation took place on many fronts, he said while giving the example of the present project of connecting Kevadiya where a multi-pronged focus led to the completion of the task in record time.

The Prime Minister also presented Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) as an example of a change in approach from the earlier times. The DFC was in progress and between 2006 and 2014 during which work was done only on paper with not even a single kilometre of track being laid. Now, a total of 1100 kilometre is about to be completed in the next few months, PM said.