Jaipur: Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday alleged that the UPA government had ignored a big state like Rajasthan and said that work will now pick up pace in the state under the "double-engine" BJP government.
He also said that after the BJP formed government at the Centre the budget for development of railways has increased manifold. After inspecting the ongoing redevelopment works of the Jaipur railway station, Vaishnaw said, "As per Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision, complete transformation of stations is underway. Our focus is to make the railways world-class."
He also announced that the Ajmer-Delhi Cantt Vande Bharat train will now make a stopover at the Gandhinagar railway station here besides the main Jaipur station.
Vaishnaw said that Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma has given instructions for the state chief secretary and the Railways general manager to meet once a month.
Talking to reporters here, the Railways minister said, "Before 2014, a big state like Rajasthan was completely ignored by the then UPA government. Now, redevelopment of 83 stations is being done in Rajasthan and the work will speed up under the double-engine government."
He later met party workers and officials at the BJP's state headquarters here. Interacting with reporters, Vaishnaw said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme was started in 2023 and under it, work is going on to make more than 1,300 railway stations across the country world-class.
The Modi government had passed a railway budget of Rs 9,500 crore for Rajasthan. Under this, work is going on to make 83 railway stations of the state world-class under the Amrit Station Scheme. Out of this work on 25 to 30 railway stations has been completed, the Union minister said.
Vaishnaw said that based on Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma's proposal, Sanganer railway station has been included in the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme.
The work to lay 400 km of new railway line in a year is going on in Rajasthan. For this, 15 km of railway tracks are being laid every day, the minister said.
Vaishnaw was on a one-day visit to Jaipur during which he reviewed the progress of the redevelopment work of Jaipur station being done at a cost of Rs 717 crore. He also inspected the Sanganer station.
