PM to flag off Puri-Howrah Vande Bharat, launch projects in Odisha on Thurs

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone and inaugurate several railway projects valued at more than Rs 8,000 crores in Odisha on Thursday via video conferencing, officials said.

He will flag off the Puri-Howrah Vande Bharat Express on Thursday from the pilgrimage town of Odisha, a South Eastern Railway official said in Kolkata.

The train will cover the 500 km distance between Howrah and Puri, the abode of Lord Jagannath, in around six and a half hours.

Apart from that, Modi will lay the foundation stone for redeveloping Puri and Cuttack railway stations so that passengers can get all modern amenities in future.

The prime minister will also dedicate 100 per cent electrification of the rail network in Odisha. This will reduce the operating and maintenance cost and reduce reliance on imported crude oil, an official of the East Coast Railways said in Bhubaneswar.

Modi is also scheduled to dedicate the doubling of the Sambalpur-Titlagarh rail line, a new broad gauge