Vande Bharat Express ticket prices should be reduced: JMM MP Maji

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MP Mahua Maji on Sunday said that if the Vande Bharat train is for the people, then it is imperative that ticket prices should be reduced.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually flagged off nine Vande Bharat Express trains, and said that the speed and scale of infrastructure development are matching with aspirations of 140 crore Indians.

"If this Vande Bharat train is for the people and we want them to travel by Vande Bharat, it is necessary that the fare prices should be reduced," Mahua Maji said.

She further said, "We welcome the Vande Bharat train but we appeal that its fare prices should be reduced and some portion of the budget should also be spent on other trains as well."

PM Modi said that 25 Vande Bharat Express trains are already running, now nine more will be added to them.

"The popularity of Vande Bharat trains is constantly rising.

Over 1,11,00,000 crore passengers have already travelled on them," he added.

The launch of these trains will connect religious and tourist destinations across 11 these states, a PMO statement said earlier.

The new trains are Udaipur - Jaipur Vande Bharat Express, Tirunelveli-Madurai- Chennai Vande Bharat Express, Hyderabad -Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express, Vijayawada - Chennai (via Renigunta) Vande Bharat Express, Patna - Howrah Vande Bharat Express, Kasaragod - Thiruvananthapuram Vande Bharat Express, Rourkela - Bhubaneswar - Puri Vande Bharat Express, Ranchi - Howrah Vande Bharat Express and Jamnagar-Ahmedabad Vande Bharat Express.

The Vande Bharat train is an initiative of the government under PM Modi's vision of 'Make in India'.