- Sunday, March 02, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (8) visited two southern states of Telangana and Tamil Nadu where he either inaugurated or laid the foundation of a slew of development projects besides flagging off two semi high-speed Vande Bharat (VB) Express trains.
Modi, whose Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not too strong in either of these two states, first arrived in Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana. Received by the BJP’s state chief and other officials at the airport, Modi flagged off the Secunderabad-Tirupati VB Express. He inaugurated the train from Hyderabad’s Secunderabad railway station where he interacted with school children and railway officials on board the stationary train.
Flagged off the Vande Bharat Express that enhances connectivity between Secunderabad and Tirupati. I congratulate the people of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for this train. pic.twitter.com/BDJf9odw2k
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 8, 2023
The train is set to reduce the travel time between Secunderabad in Telangana and Tirupati, a popular Hindu pilgrimage site in south India, in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, by almost three-and-a-half hours.
In January, Modi had virtually flagged off a VB train between Secunderabad and the port city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, which was the first such service connecting the two Telugu-speaking states.
Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, Indian railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Indian minister for culture and tourism G Kisan Reddy were among those who were present on the occasion.
Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao skipped Modi’s events.
Besides flagging off the elite train, Modi also laid foundation stone of projects worth Rs 11,300 crore (£1.1 billion) in the state. He also laid the foundation stone of All India Institute of Medical Sciences Bibinagar, also in Telangana, besides five national highway projects.
#WATCH | Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the new integrated terminal building of Chennai Airport.
(Source: DD News) pic.twitter.com/nePcYoKUUS
— ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2023
From Hyderabad, Modi flew to Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, where he flagged off a VB Express between Chennai and Coimbatore. The train is also expected to cut down the journey time by one hour and 20 minutes, sources in the Indian Railways said.
The prime minister also inaugurated several infrastructure projects, including a state-of-the-art integrated terminal building set up at a total outlay of around Rs 2,437 crore (£239.7 million) at the airport in Tamil Nadu’s capital.
Modi was accompanied by Indian civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin.
Modi also took part in the 125th annual day celebrations of Ramakrishna Mutt at Vivekanandhar Illam in the city.
