Chennai: The flagging off of the Chennai-Chennai Vande Bharat Express by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday comes at a time when the BJP is making a major push to make inroads into the Southern states including Tamil Nadu which has always been a tough nut to crack for the saffron party.
Even as the ruling DMK has become proactive in uniting the Opposition to challenge the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections with Chief Minister MK Stalin reaching out to Opposition parties for the purpose, the passengers of the latest Vande Bharat Express seemed to be more interested on the developmental aspect of the move rather than looking into its political side.
Speaking to ETV Bharat during the inaugural run of the Chennai-Coimbatore Vande Bharat Express the passengers described the latest route of the semi-high-speed train as a "matter of national pride". " This is above and beyond politics. To my knowledge politics will not interfere in the development of the nation," said a passenger who is an employee of the Railways.
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Another passenger, sitting opposite him, was clapping loudly with a big smile on his face when the train was flagged off by the Prime Minister said that the train will drastically reduce the travel time between Chennai and Coimbatore from the usual eight hours to six hours.
"We are very proud to be part of this inaugural journey. Our PM has inaugurated this Vabde Bharat from Coimbatore. It's a major development that we have witnessed. This is the pride of the nation. The travel time will be reduced from six hours to eight hours," he said.
Passengers also said that the fare of the train is also reasonable and within the reach of middle-class people. As for the incidents of cattle and other animals coming onto the track of the train, the loco pilot said that they are trying to address the issue by turning the headlight on and off and using the horn to get the away from the track and save their lives.
"We can give the light signal, blow the horn and try to save the animals from impact. With horn animals clear away from the track," said one of the loco pilots of the train. He also said while the Vande Bharat Express is capable of reaching speeds of up to 160 km per hour, but currently runs at 130 km per hour because the capacity of the tracks is as such.
"We are running at 121 km per hour now. The track capacity is 130 km per hour. It's a 503 km long journey between Coimbatore to Chennai," the loco pilot said.
