Lucknow: Lucknow, Oct 4 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday pitched for a “semi-bullet train” on the Agra-Varanasi route as he flagged off the Tejas Express, the country’s first “private” train run by its subsidiary IRCTC, between Lucknow and New Delhi.
He said the state government will bear the cost of the land if the railways take up the Agra-Varanasi project and suggested similar trains to Allahabad and Gorakhpur. The commercial run of the new Tejas Express starts on Saturday. The train cuts the time travelled between the two cities to six hours 15 minutes from the six hours 40 minutes taken by the Swarna Shatabdi, currently the fastest train on the route. “It is the first corporate train of the country. I congratulate the first batch of passengers travelling in it and hope such initiatives are taken to connect other cities as well,” Adityanath said. “We are constructing an expressway between Agra, Lucknow and Varanasi. Half of the work is over and the project will be completed next year,” he said, suggesting that a semi-high speed train could also be run on this route.
“If the railway board takes any initiative on this, the state will bear the cost on the Agra-Varanasi route,” he said. He said such initiatives can also be taken on other routes, including Lucknow-Allahabad and Lucknow-Gorakhpur. “I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Railway Minister Piyush Goel for giving the first corporate train from the biggest state to Delhi,” he said. “This is a competitive era and there is a need for environment friendly public transport to be accepted in society,” Adityanath said. (PTI)
