Terror won't deter us, says govt, flags off Vande Bharat Express

NEW DELHI: The government went ahead with the flag-off of Vande Bharat Express on Friday to send a strong message that all Indians, including soldiers, "won't bow down" to terrorists or will be weakened because of terror attacks, Union railway minister Piyush Goyal said.

Talking to reporters while travelling in the country's first semi high-speed train from New Delhi to Varanasi, a day after the ghastly terror attack in Pulwama that killed 40 CRPF personnel, Goyal recalled how Mumbai had given a befitting reply to show its resilience just a day after the 26/11 terror attack.

"The way Mumbai answered them, with everybody going to their work discharging their responsibilities, similarly the Vande Bharat Express today (Friday) was dedicated to the nation on time in the service of its people. This is the biggest answer to the terrorists. Neither our jawans nor our people would ever bow before them," he said.

The minister said the government plans to ply more such trains between cities, covering a distance of 250-500 km. "We have started the bidding process to build 30 such trains and I have sought permission from the Prime Minister to build 100 more trainsets," Goyal said.

PM Narendra Modi flagged off the train from New Delhi station on Friday morning. The commercial run of the train will start from Sunday and within 24 hours all seats were booked.

On the likely routes, Goyal said Mumbai-Pune, Indore-Bhopal and even Delhi-Amritsar could be next stretches where passenger demand is high. He said these trains could give a competition to short distance flights in the country.

Goyal said the trainsets made by Indian engineers have capability to at maximum speed of 180 kmph. He added railways is working on the plan to revamp the railway lines falling in the Golden Quadrilateral network so that trains plying on these stretches can run at 160 kmph in the next few years. The train will run five days a week between New Delhi and Varanasi, the PM's constituency, a distance of 775 km to be covered in eight hours.