Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the speed and scale of infrastructure development matched the aspirations of 140 crore Indians as he flagged off nine Vande Bharat Express trains across 11 states.

“This speed and scale of infrastructure development in the country is exactly matching the aspirations of 140 crore Indians,” Modi said. “Indian Railways is the most trusted co-passenger of India’s poor and middle-class people. The number of people who travel in the railways in one day is more than the population of many countries,” he added.

“I am confident that the changes taking place at every level in Indian Railways and society will prove to be an important step towards a developed India,” the PM further said.

Flagging off the Vande Bharat Express trains via video conferencing, the PM also slammed the previous governments for not paying adequate attention to modernisation of railways and assured that the “day is not far when Vande Bharat will connect every part of the country”.

Governors, Chief Ministers, Union ministers, and elected representatives were present at the nine railway stations from where the indigenously built semi-high speed trains were flagged off.

The nine trains will provide faster connectivity across 11 states — Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha, Jharkhand and Gujarat.

Union minister Kailash Choudhary and Rajasthan BJP president CP Joshi boarded the Vande Bharat Express train at Udaipur and travelled till Chhittorgarh where a huge crowd of BJP workers raised the slogans of “Vande Mataram” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai’.

Modi also said that selfish thinking of concentrating railway development in the state of the railway minister has damaged the country a lot and “now we simply can not afford to keep any state backward”.

“We have to move ahead with a vision of sabka saath, sabka vikas,” he added.