NELLORE: Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu and Minister of State for Railways Suresh C Angadi flagged off Vijayawada-Gudur Intercity Super Fast Express at Gudur Railway station on Sunday.
The Vice-President also inaugurated the remodelled yard, new platforms 4 and 5 and second foot-over-bridge at Gudur Railway Station.
Addressing the gathering, Venkaiah said that people can now travel to the State capital and return by night on the Intercity Express.
Venkaiah also inaugurated the country’s longest electrified rail tunnel between Cherlopalli and Rapur and the electrified railway line between Venkatachalam and Obulavaripalli. “I am overwhelmed with emotion as my long-cherished childhood dream has now come true,” the he remarked, recalling his trip on the newly-commissioned Obulavaripalli-Krishnapatnam line on Saturday evening.
“I am emotional because the railway line passes through my native and ancestral villages where I spent my childhood. At that time, nobody had even imagined that a train would be passing these hillocks one day. When I was a minister (in the erstwhile Vajpayee government) this line was envisaged, planned, surveyed and sanctioned. It is finally completed when I am the Vice-President now,” Naidu recalled.
The Vice-President said his next priority would be to expedite the crucial Nadikudi-Srikalahasti new railway line project as it would ensure development of the upland regions of AP.
State Water Resources Minister P Anil Kumar Yadav, Member of Rajya Sabha Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy and MPs B Durga Prasad, A Prabhakar Reddy and Gudur MLA V Vara Prasad were present.