PM to flag off 2 Vande Bharat trains, inaugurate educational campus in Mumbai on Friday

Mumbai, Feb 9: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off two Vande Bharat trains from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and inaugurate a new campus of an educational institute of the Dawoodi Bohra community during his visit to the metropolis on Friday.

After arriving in the city, Modi will first flag off CSMT-Solapur Vande Bharat Express in the afternoon and soon after the second semi high-speed train linking the financial capital to Sainagar Shirdi, a temple town in Ahmednagar district, Railway officials said on Thursday.

With this, the number of Vande Bharat Express trains running from Mumbai will increase to three, while the total count of these semi high-speed trains in the country will go up to 10. The CSMT-Solapur Vande Bharat train will improve connectivity between the two cities and also facilitate travel to important pilgrimage centres like Siddheshwar in Solapur, Akkalkot, Tuljapur, Pandharpur near Solapur and Alandi in Pune district.

The second Vande Bharat train will improve connectivity of important pilgrimage centres in Maharashtra like Nashik, Trimbakeshwar, Sainagar Shirdi and Shani Singanapur. According to the officials, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, his deputy Devendra Fadnavis and Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, among other dignitaries, will be present at the CSMT function.

Later in the day, Modi will inaugurate a new campus of Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah (The Saifee Academy), the principal educational institute of the Dawoodi Bohra community, at Marol in suburban Andheri and dedicate infrastructure projects to the nation.

Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah is working to protect the learning traditions and literary culture of the community. The Prime Minister will also inaugurate Vakola-Kurla and MTNL-LBS (Lal Bahadur Shastri) elevated corridor arms on Santacruz-Chembur Link Road, a key east-west corridor in the city, and vehicular underpasses at Kurar and Malad in western suburbs. These arms connect the Western Express Highway to the Eastern Express Highway.

The Kurar underpass is crucial to ease traffic on WEH and connect Malad and Kurar sides of the busy highway. It will allow pedestrians to cross the road with ease and also vehicles to move without having to get onto the heavy traffic on WEH. This will be Modi's second visit to the city in less than a month.

On January 19, the PM inaugurated and laid foundation stones for infrastructure and healthcare projects worth more than Rs 38,000 crore in the financial capital. His visit assumes significance in view of the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls.